C4— Strange Tales By The Lakeside

In the early morning, the sunlight filtered through the gaps in the shade of the trees, transforming into shaky spots of light scattered on the cabin. The warm temperature awakened all survivors from their dreams.

 

 

The crowd gathered in the living room; none of them stretched or yawned; they looked like they were severely sleep-deprived.

 

 

Zhou Wu rubbed his eyes, and his dry eyes made a squeaky sound. Thick eye bags and black circles hung on his lifeless face, as if he had stayed up all night for a week.

 

 

Fang Hao and Li Mingfeng squeezed together through the night, tp the point that they felt like all the bones in their body were going to be squeezed apart, and they slept so heavily that it was almost nightmarish.

 

 

Only Zhuo Yu, still sitting in a wheelchair with a clear mind, opened the wooden door in a good mood. The chirping of birds in the mountains and the refreshing breeze rushed into the living room, sweeping away the gloomy and terrifying scene of last night.

 

 

“Why are you so energetic?” Li Mingfeng asked Zhuo Yu.

 

 

Zhuo Yu shrugged and said, “I found some fun toys last night. It was quite relaxing, and while playing, I fell asleep and slept soundly.”

 

 

A fake smile tugged at Li Mingfeng’s lips; he didn’t believe Zhuo Yu’s nonsense.

 

 

“Where’s Mu Ying?” Zhou Wu propped himself up and scanned the surroundings, still not seeing his teammate. “Hasn’t she woken up yet?”

 

 

The sound of the door opening and closing dispelled his doubts.

 

 

Mu Ying, wearing baggy pajamas, slowly walked towards the crowd. However, her walking posture seemed strange, like that of a patient with muscle weakness with deep and shallow feet. Her arms swayed by the sides as she walked, but her steps were extremely stiff.

 

 

“Hungry, so hungry…” Mu Ying murmured and sat straight beside Zhou Wu.

 

 

Zhou Wu scratched his head and thoughtfully took out the snacks they had prepared for camping from the RV, as well as the cans found in the wooden house, and placed them in front of the woman.

 

 

Mu Ying’s slightly cloudy eyes suddenly lit up, and she reached out to grab the canned meat. The oily soup overflowed from her fingers and dripped all over the sofa. She filled her mouth with food like a starving ghost, stuffing it in one bite at a time. But her movements were too fast, and she was immediately choked by the greasy meat, her eyes turning white.

 

 

Just as Zhou Wu was shocked and wanted to pat her on the back, Mu Ying suddenly twitched a few times and vomited out everything she had swallowed. At the same time, she also vomited out a large pool of foul-smelling water, including tangled seaweed and a small fish that had been digested halfway and still had scales.

 

 

Fang Hao and others were frightened and immediately retreated in a big circle.

 

 

“Not fresh! It’s not fresh at all!”

 

 

Mu Ying roared for a while before calming down for a while. She looked at her teammates in a daze and said, “I got too thirsty at night, so I drank some lake water. Do you want to give it a try?”

 

 

“Huh??” Fang Hao glared at Mu Ying with disdain. “Are you having a problem with your brain?”

 

 

“It’s very sweet. The water of Golden Lake is very sweet,” Mu Ying murmured in a confused manner. “You should also try it; everyone will be together.”

 

 

Li Mingfeng pulled Fang Hao aside and looked cautiously at Mu Ying, but Zhou Wu didn’t feel anything was wrong with Mu Ying. He shushed him and even took her into his arms.

 

 

Li Mingfeng felt his eyes turn black, and his breath got stuck in his throat. How could Captain Zhou become like this? He had no sense of vigilance! Did dating ruin his brain!? There was also Fang Hao, who was also unreliable. They agreed that the two of them would guard each other for several hours at night, but Fang Hao fell asleep directly.

 

 

Li Mingfeng felt that he had truly become the character, “Bonnie”, and was full of resentment towards his cousin, Zhou Wu, who dragged him to the Golden Lake.

 

 

A person who relied solely on physical fitness and military force, without any brain, had no qualifications to become the captain!

 

 

The more he thought, the angrier he became. Subconsciously, he looked at the last person left in the hall, Zhuo Yu, who had entered the team halfway.

 

 

Zhuo Yu’s wheelchair was pressed against the door. He lifted his arms and watched the farce in front of him with great interest, without any anxiety or fear in his eyes. Instead of being an actor, he looked more like an audience waiting to see a good play.

 

 

For some reason, Li Mingfeng suddenly felt a cold surge and quickly withdrew his gaze, no longer observing Zhuo Yu.

 

 

[Pre-task: Successfully spend the first night camping.] Completed.]

 

 

[Main Task Update: Please enjoy the fun of the Golden Lake Scenic Area before nightfall].

 

 

Li Mingfeng felt annoyed as he listened to the system. He knew he couldn’t persuade the captain so he chose to stay away. Zhuo Yu followed him back to the room.

 

 

Li Mingfeng’s footsteps suddenly stopped, and he said, “Do you smell a strange odor?”

 

 

“What? Didn’t Mu Ying vomit?”

 

 

“No.” Li Mingfeng shook his head and looked at Zhuo Yu’s room with suspicion. “It’s a rotten smell; forget it, this damn place…”

 

 

Zhuo Yu watched as he returned to his room then he also entered his own room.

 

 

He shook his wheelchair and came to the bedside, lifting the sheets that hung on the floor. It seemed like something white was lying under the wide, four-pillar bed. Zhuo Yu grabbed one leg of that thing and forcefully turned his wheelchair backwards, pulling out the ghastly corpse from last night.

 

 

The fishy smell, mixed with the stench of rotting meat exposed to the scorching sun, almost choked him. The body remained motionless, with its head tilted as it lay on the ground. The swollen skin was peeled off, revealing pink flesh, with only those protruding dead fish eyes mixed with a hint of pre-death unwillingness.

 

 

The hands of the Yin corpse tightly clung to its neck, and its neck bone was broken. It committed suicide.

 

 

“Who told you to keep an eye on me?”

 

 

Zhuo Yu knew from a young age that when anyone was restless, just looking into his eyes would subconsciously calm them down. He used this trick to fool his editor many times and escape a lot of nagging.

 

 

Last night, he had intended to calm down the ghost and keep it away from him. The corpse was stunned for a moment, as if in a state of madness. It raised its hand and twisted its own neck, and in a cruel way, it truly “distanced” itself from him.

 

 

He didn’t expect this talent to have such power when he entered the set. He felt that it should be the skill brought by the “unknown character” he played.

 

 

Zhuo Yu took out his sharpened fork and thrust the sharp end into his soft belly, lifting the entire abdominal cavity and chest together.

 

 

Due to long-term paralysis of the lower limbs, Zhuo Yu consciously exercised his upper body. Although he looked like a weak scholar, in reality, his upper-limb strength should be greater than that of Zhou Wu. Fortunately, the Yin corpse was extremely rotten, allowing it to be easily opened and pierced without much effort.

 

 

Last night, he carefully dissected the Yin corpse; it was almost what he thought. The mouth, nose, and respiratory tract of this thing were full of pink foam, which was the mark caused by the liquid choking into the bronchi and lungs, leading to the rupture of mucosa and blood vessels. The body spots also showed a light red color, which was a typical drowning death, so the body wasn’t dumped into the Golden Lake after death.

 

 

This guy had a lot of sediment and seaweed in his stomach and between his nails, so he must have suffered a lot before he died.

 

 

The information provided by the system was correct, but Zhuo Yu wanted to test it on his own to avoid being deceived.

 

 

“So… how did Mu Ying resurrect?”

 

 

If a normal person lost 1200 milliliters of blo-od, they would die. He recalled the scene last night — a large amount of blo-od flowed out of the door, far exceeding this number. Mu Ying had no chance of surviving.

 

 

But last night, the system didn’t broadcast Mu Ying’s death, which indicated that Mu Ying should be “surviving” in other forms now, and whether she was human or not was uncertain.

 

 

“Yin corpses are just appetizers; the real boss hasn’t appeared yet.”

 

 

Zhuo Yu thought for a moment, and if this corpse hadn’t met him last night, Mu Ying wouldn’t have been the only one in trouble. That thing would be like an old wolf entering a flock of sheep, bleeding them one by one.

 

 

And that wasn’t even the boss.

 

 

Zhuo Yu shook his wheelchair and pushed the corpse back under the bed. Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, the door to the room was knocked on, and it was Zhou Wu’s voice.

 

 

He called out everyone who was resting and said with a big grin, “I thought there were monsters, but it turns out that nothing happened during the night. Why don’t we just enjoy ourselves like the system said, before it punishes us, I don’t want to get burned by fire.”

 

 

Zhou Wu pondered for a while in the living room before deciding that, since the system had released such a new task, it may be necessary for them to follow the character design and continue camping here.

 

 

In Jack’s memory, the school bully’s plan was to come here for swimming, fishing, and even hunting to hold a barbecue feast. Of course, the most important thing was still being intimate with his girlfriend, having done that several times already.

 

 

Zhou Wu began to liven up, and he rummaged through the trunk of the RV. Sure enough, he found many good things that the characters had brought with them.

 

 

Zhuo Yu watched him get busy on the side; he threw a pile of fishing rods, charcoal, kitchen utensils, and even handles and gu-ns on the ground. He was truly a big guy who loved campus bullying and would even collect dangerous items.

 

 

Zhou Wu inserted his gu-n into his pocket and then announced his plan, asking everyone to do whatever they needed to but he also warned them not to stray too far away from the cabin.

 

 

Zhuo Yu was stuffed with a fishing rod, and when he turned his head, Fang Hao was also holding the rod with teary eyes, and his whole body had began to tremble again. Because everyone knew that there may be a problem with the Golden Lake, no one wanted to get close, so Zhou Wu handed over the fishing job to the two non-staff members.

 

 

“…” Zhuo Yu left expressionlessly, holding the fishing rod without any objection. Fang Hao could only grit his teeth and find a place to start fishing.

 

 

Time flew by rapidly, and the day at Golden Lake was very short. At 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the sky began to dim.

 

 

Fang Hao sighed and picked up a small bucket with a few scattered fish inside. He happened to catch sight of Zhuo Yu returning and he felt much more at ease when he saw him empty-handed.

 

 

Fang Hao smiled and mockingly asked, “Why, you don’t need legs when fishing; you didn’t catch a single one?”

 

 

Zhuo Yu gave him a mysterious smile and even hooked his finger.

 

 

After Fang Hao approached, Zhuo Yu gently said, “Didn’t you see Mu Ying? Aren’t you afraid that after eating the fish here, you won’t be able to leave anymore?”

 

 

The doll-faced college student’s face turned pale with fear, and the bucket in his hand fell. The fish bounced to the ground as he exclaimed, “You, you! Why didn’t you say it earlier?”

 

 

Zhuo Yu looked surprised and retorted, “Do you really believe it? I was joking!”

 

 

Without waiting for Fang Hao to get back to his senses, Zhuo Yu threw the fishing rod to the side of the car and left with a flourish, and it was only a few moments later that Fang Hao, who had come back to his senses, turned red in the face and cursed at the person who had teased him.

 

 

Zhuo Yu certainly wouldn’t care about this little incident. He didn’t go fishing with his fishing rod but took advantage of the time to survey the terrain near the Golden Lake and see if there were any new clues.

 

 

He ignored Zhou Wu and others who were organizing the barbecue banquet and went back to his room alone.

 

 

Zhuo Yu’s room was close to the back door, which was facing the lake. He glanced at the senior players outside the window and couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh. If he could move freely, he probably wouldn’t choose to team up. Sometimes having more people wasn’t an advantage but a hindrance.

 

 

Just as he lifted the sheets, he found that the body, which had been lying well under the bed, had actually disappeared without a trace.

 

 

Zhuo Yu raised an eyebrow and quickly arrived at the back door with winding water marks. The moon had already climbed the mountain slope and was slowly rising to the center of the lake, while the corpse was completely missing.

 

 

“Even if a bone is broken, it can still live. Then I’ll try burning it next time.”

 

 

Zhuo Yu turned his head and left the cabin, pondering how to get Zhou Wu’s flint. Not far away, a pair of stiff, dead eyes were hidden in the lake, filled with fear.

 

 

The surviving ghost wasn’t very intelligent; its only remaining memory was that it crashed into the black pupils of that human and then felt nothing. It seemed slightly uneasy, diving deeper and swimming all the way towards the center of the Golden Lake.

 

 

The Golden Lake told it… that there was a different kind that could solve the problems in front of it.

 

 

The Yin corpse swam deeper and deeper, passing through countless broken corpses at the bottom. On a giant stone with a dagger inserted, it saw its dormant guardian.

 

 

The Yin corpse seemed to have seen a savior, opening its big mouth and emitting a sharp howl. The disturbed guardian opened his eyes. The Yin corpse swam to his side with open teeth and claws, leading him out to the bottom of the lake.

 

 

Under the cover of night, no one saw the ripples swaying by the riverbank.

 

 

A black shadow appeared, stirring up the sparkling full moon in the golden lake. Half of his body sank in the cold lake water as he gazed at the hot, fresh prey from afar.

 

 

In the firelight, several figures were vividly reflected, but only one of them was somewhat strange, as if sitting in a wheelchair.

 

 

The man was stunned.

 

 

 

“Hehe… hehe… ga!!” The Yin corpse recounted the situation on the shore to him, and as soon as it finished speaking, its cheeks hurt. Its entire head was tightly gripped, and with just a little more force, it would explode like a ripe watermelon.

 

 

Don’t make noise, thought the guardian of Golden Lake.

 

 

Let me take a quiet look at him again.

 

 

---

TN:

ML is here!! I got a bit tired and this was sitting in my drafts for a bit. Updates will hopefully remain as consistent as it started. See ya tomorrow!!