Chapter 185: Filial Piety

It all happened in the blink of an eye. Lu Caiwei’s voice was still echoing hollowly from the next stall when Li Zhi reacted swiftly, grabbing the door latch and pulling the stall door back shut.

With a loud bang, the door slammed on a pair of pale, bluish hands. A piercing, bone-chilling scream rang out in the cramped bathroom. The hands struggled, still trying to yank the door open. Li Zhi gripped the latch tightly, fighting against the force. Eventually, the hands withdrew, and the wooden door slammed shut completely. Li Zhi locked it in one fluid motion.

Lu Caiwei’s voice abruptly stopped. Li Zhi shouted, “Lock the doors!”

No one replied, but two locking sounds quickly followed from either side.

Inside the tiny bathroom, the silence was so intense that they could hear each other’s heartbeats. After a moment, the high heels outside the stall began to move.

Tap—
Tap—
Tap—

The footsteps paused outside the middle stall.

Xing Qingyue saw the heels stop outside her door and clamped her hands tightly over her mouth, trying not to sob.

Soon, the heels moved again—this time stopping outside Lu Caiwei’s stall.

Lu Caiwei tensed, gripping a prop in her hand, staring motionlessly at those feet. Suddenly, the heels vanished.

She froze, a chill running down her spine. Her danger instinct kicked in. Lu Caiwei instinctively looked up—and saw a woman crouched atop the stall door, black hair hanging down, slowly crawling inside. Her long fingernails were inches from Lu Caiwei’s scalp.

Lu Caiwei hurled the immobilizing prop upward, kicked open the stall door, and shouted, “Run!”

Li Zhi and Xing Qingyue burst out from their stalls. Without looking back, the three of them sprinted out of the women’s restroom, running all the way back to the auditorium, where filming was still in full swing. Lu Caiwei slammed the door shut, slid down with her back against it, breathless. “I nearly died!”

If she hadn’t looked up in time, those nails would’ve torn her scalp clean off.

Xing Qingyue was pale as a ghost. “What was that thing? Is… is it going to follow us?”

No one could answer.

Seeing their alarmed expressions, a few other players approached. “What happened?”

Li Zhi said bluntly, “There’s a ghost in the bathroom.”

Zhao Yangzhou, who had been planning to use the bathroom: “…”

Forget it. I can hold it.

Lu Caiwei hesitated, then said, “We should tell the director. If something happens to the crew, our mission will only drag on longer.”

Another player frowned. “You think he’ll believe you? He’s shooting a horror movie in a funeral parlor. No way he believes in ghosts.”

Lu Caiwei replied, “He doesn’t have to believe. As long as others do.” Then she rubbed her eyes until they were red, making her pale and delicate face look pitiful and panic-stricken. She ran toward the monitor shouting, “Director! We saw a ghost!”

The entire set fell silent. Everyone looked over, stunned.

Lu Caiwei turned on her acting, retelling the incident with slight embellishments and vivid expression. The staff’s faces visibly paled, but the director, predictably, didn’t believe her. He scolded, “Nonsense! There’s no such thing as ghosts! We’ve filmed horror for years—if ghosts were real, I’d be long dead!”

Tears welled in Lu Caiwei’s eyes. “I’m not lying. Li Zhi and Qingyue saw it too.” She raised her voice, “No one should go to the bathroom! Let’s finish shooting and leave quickly!”

Ning Xue was also spooked. She stomped her foot and snapped, “I told you we should’ve built a set! Why come to this unlucky place?”

The director was furious. He pulled Lu Caiwei aside and scolded, “Stop spreading panic! If everyone’s like you, how can we shoot this film? Go! One more word and I’ll cut your lines!”

Lu Caiwei: “…”

Speechless.

Still, her little performance did the trick—no one dared to use the bathroom after that. The entire shoot wrapped without anyone leaving the hall again.

They finished after midnight. Normally, players would never be out so late in an instance, but tagging along with the crew NPCs gave them a new kind of experience.

Thankfully, despite the late hour, nothing unusual happened. Another hour passed as they loaded all the props and equipment onto the vehicles. Everyone was exhausted. Naturally, no one planned to stay overnight in the funeral parlor. The logistics team had booked a hotel in the nearby town. Ning Xue was the first to leave in her van, taking Jiang Can with her.

On arrival, actors and crew had traveled in separate vehicles, but on the way back, it wasn’t so strict. Yan Yingrui and Jing Da joined Lu Ao’s minibus, sitting openly beside him. As known members of Peacock, they weren’t afraid of being spotted by Tianwen.

Among the six actors, Xie Zhen—the one playing Ning Xue’s suitor—was with Tianwen. Perhaps worried that Yan Yingrui and Jing Da would act against him, four more Tianwen members quickly boarded as well.

On the surface, Peacock appeared outnumbered. But Tianwen made no rash moves. They took their seats quietly and rested with eyes closed.

The minibus was cramped, every seat taken by players. As the vehicle pulled away from the funeral parlor, Li Zhi took out her sunflower charm and noticed the cracks had slightly healed.

Could it self-repair?

No, wait—if Li Jianxi could sense her through this charm, it must be linked to his mental power. That meant he was remotely repairing it now.

This likely only worked once inside the instance. Outside, their connection had been completely severed—his power couldn't breach the veil between worlds.

She’d probably see him tomorrow. Li Zhi closed her hand around the charm. The warmth of her palm made it emit a soft glow.

Watching his sister’s rare moment of tenderness, Li Feng sighed, his worry turning quiet.

The funeral parlor was far from town. The minibus drove along deserted roads with no streetlights. The beams of the headlights cut a hazy path through the dark, the roadside bushes like gaping black eyes.

As they rounded a bend, a woman suddenly appeared at the roadside overgrown with weeds. She wore a black dress, her long hair falling freely, and raised a hand, trying to flag the van.

The driver let out a surprised “Huh?” and said, “This late, and someone’s still hitchhiking?”

He slowed down, clearly planning to pick her up.

From the front, Xie Zhen barked, “Don’t stop! Drive past her!”

Startled, the driver objected, “It’s late, and she’s just a woman—”

“You didn’t see her in the funeral parlor earlier?” Xie Zhen said coldly. “She was in that coffin they carried past us.”

The driver’s face went pale.

He remembered now—when the crew was bringing props inside, they had passed a pair of elderly mourners carrying a portrait. The woman in that black-and-white photo looked exactly like the one now waving at them.

The van surged forward. The driver floored the gas, and everyone in the back lurched as they sped past the woman.

No one said a word. Only the driver could be heard muttering “Amitabha…”

Li Zhi leaned toward Li Feng and whispered what the director had done—sending someone to film the cremation. Li Feng frowned. “That’s probably what provoked her. And now that she’s following us, she won’t let it go.”

He paused, then asked, “Was the ghost in the bathroom her?”

Li Zhi shook her head. “I don’t know. All I saw were red heels.”

The woman had stood in the weeds, ankles hidden. Li Zhi hadn’t gotten a good look.

Li Feng’s expression grew grave. “I fear something will happen tonight.”

Once targeted by an entity in an instance, unless they found a countermeasure, it would be hard to shake it off.

Just then, a scream came from the front.

Everyone turned—the screamer was Lu Xiangyang, the player in the front passenger seat. He scrambled backward in terror, yelling, “She followed us! The rearview mirror! I saw her! She’s clinging to the door!”

In this vehicle, only the driver and front passenger could see the mirrors. Everyone glanced out the windows, but outside was pure blackness—nothing in sight.

The van swerved slightly.

The driver was clearly rattled, nearly losing control. Li Feng rushed forward and steadied him. “Keep driving. Don’t look at the mirror.”

There were no other cars this late, so the mirror wasn’t needed. If the driver lost it now, they’d all be doomed. With that in mind, Li Feng took off his jacket and covered the rearview mirror completely.

Everyone’s faces were pale. Lu Caiwei’s scalp tingled again. She turned and asked, “Could it be the same ghost we met in the bathroom?”

Had she marked them from the beginning?

Xing Qingyue was nearly in tears again. “Driver, how much longer?”

The driver was terrified too—his voice shook. “Almost there. Twenty minutes, tops.”

Standing in the aisle, Lu Xiangyang suddenly stared blankly at the opposite window.

Everyone froze and followed his gaze.

Outside, the window was as black as ever.

Then Lu Xiangyang let out a strange chuckle and suddenly lunged at the window. With a loud crash, his head shattered the glass. His body tumbled out of the vehicle.

The van jolted violently.

He was sucked beneath the speeding tires. The van ran him over with a sickening crunch. The driver screamed and slammed the brakes.

The van came to a halt.

Cold sweat dripped down the driver’s face. He stammered, “I… I killed someone, didn’t I…”

No one answered. Everyone was in shock.

The driver slumped over the wheel, sobbing hysterically.

Cold night wind blew through the shattered window, dust dancing in the twin beams of the headlights.

Outside was pitch black—nothing but their van on the road. No light, no sound.

After a long pause, Li Zhi stood up from her seat. “I’ll go check.”