Chapter 112: The Human Skin Drum (16)

Page 1/3

Faced with Lu Zhengqing’s skeptical expression, Tang Mu said only one thing: “Don’t want to pass the level anymore?”

Seeing that no grains were growing on himself, Lu Zhengqing had no choice but to follow Tang Mu’s advice. Holding the grains in his hand, he went to try the stone mill.

He placed the grains into the holes. As the grains were ground into powder, Lu Zhengqing was filled with dread, fearing some problem might arise on his body.

Fortunately, everything was normal.

Unconsciously, Lu Zhengqing breathed a sigh of relief.

“They didn’t turn into ordinary powder, but into this kind of paste-like substance,” Lu Zhengqing said, scooping a bit of the viscous paste from the grinding groove and showing it to Tang Mu. “It’s very sticky; I don’t know what it’s for.”

Tang Mu examined the paste. It wasn’t completely white, nor entirely translucent—it was about thirty percent opaque. Sticky and tacky to the touch, somewhat like glutinous rice, but not as intensely sticky. She had no idea what kind of strange thing it was.

“Wipe it on something and take a photo,” Tang Mu suggested.

The two of them wiped the sticky substance from their hands onto a nearby tree, then raised the camera.

The stone mill in the camera’s viewfinder looked ordinary. But the sticky white paste showed something unusual.

In the black-and-white-gray world of the camera, the originally viscous white paste emitted an exceptionally bright glow. This brightness was far more intense than anything else in the frame, casting an eerie color tone over the entire stone mill.

“What on earth is this?” Lu Zhengqing couldn’t help but question. “It’s neither powder nor slime. And it’s sticky to the touch… What exactly is it?”

“Let’s go back and check the rice field again,” Tang Mu said.

Returning to the spot where several rice stalks had been torn off earlier, they found that new rice plants had grown back in the broken sections.

How did they know these were new plants?

Because the cracks were obvious.

The rice above the cracks seemed to have bridged back in time, reattaching the previously torn grains to the broken parts. Yet, back at the stone mill, the gelatinous substance in the grinding groove remained.

It turned out the rice field was an area composed of countless overlapping parallel timelines.

Only when leaving the rice field did time and space return to normal.

“Never thought a simple rice field would hold so many mysteries,” Lu Zhengqing marveled.

Tang Mu frowned. “Tonight’s monsters will be tough to deal with.” If countless timelines were overlapping and damaged things kept repairing themselves, the upcoming battle would be relentless, with no chance to rest.

Page 2/3

“Let’s go back and rest. Prepare for tonight’s fight.”

Having made this decision, Tang Mu left without looking back.

Only Lu Zhengqing was left standing there, disheveled in the wind.

No, this Tang girl was really something. Maybe she was used to handling things alone? He saw no sign that she had consulted anyone else.

“But I think if we keep looking, maybe we can find other clues…”

“Then you stay and look,” Tang Mu said without turning around.

Lu Zhengqing was speechless. Forget it, his job was to watch Tang Mu. Better not to overthink anything else.

Otherwise, he’d just get frustrated.

Night fell.

The moon was exceptionally bright tonight, almost perfectly round and pure. The pale, secretive, and hazy moonlight shone down like a giant white wheel, resembling the white grain paste Tang Mu had ground at the stone mill during the day.

Equally beautiful, sacred, fair, and sticky.

It was a pity their camera had already been taken away by the front desk clerk. Tang Mu even remembered how the clerk’s expression was a mix of slight reverence, caution, and fear when she took the camera—like she was afraid Tang Mu might break it if unhappy.

Tang Mu recalled saying, “Do I have to return this camera?”

The clerk wiped the sweat from her forehead and spoke softly and cautiously, “The company’s assets have to be inventoried every day. If it’s not accounted for, I can’t finish work...”

“For such a small inn, it’s already a company?”

“...Yes, yes.”

“Fine. You take it back and inventory it. When you’re done, I’ll get it from your safe.”

The clerk was speechless.

Eventually, the “willing” clerk respectfully handed Tang Mu a tea-colored vintage lens. There was only one lens, but its frame was wrapped in antique copper-colored metal. Users could hold the metal handle at the end and place the tea-colored vintage lens before their eyes to see the normal world under the village’s night sky.

It was inconvenient to use.

You had to constantly hold the handle, raise it, and align the lens with your eyes.

Page 3/3

Gwen Qian watched Tang Mu holding that vintage lens, peering around the room and outside the window, and whispered softly beside her:

“You’ve been looking through that lens for over an hour. Have you found anything wrong?”

“No,” Tang Mu replied.

Gwen Qian was puzzled.

“So…”

“Just for fun,” Tang Mu answered. “The world inside the lens and the world outside are two different things. In such situations, people tend to be drawn into a playful mindset—like a game of spot the difference.”

“For example, the moon inside the lens is noticeably larger than the moon outside. Also, the ancient Greek oil paintings on our indoor walls look eerier through the lens.”

Oil paintings?

Guided by Tang Mu’s voice, Gwen Qian glanced over.

She couldn’t help but frown. Every time she saw the two oil paintings above the single bed, she felt an inexplicable chill, as if someone was watching her… a bone-chilling sensation.

From a feng shui perspective,

it was like your bed faced a mirror—

pushing your emotions into a state of extreme unease.

“What do the paintings look like inside the lens?” Gwen Qian couldn’t help but ask out of curiosity.

“There aren’t enough words to describe. See for yourself.”

Tang Mu handed the lens to Gwen Qian.

Gwen Qian raised the lens to her eyes.

When she saw the paintings—

she nearly gasped and almost vomited everything she had eaten over the past two days.

The once beautiful and richly colored ancient Greek portraits had all transformed into skulls and skeletons. The skeletons were stained with some unknown liquid representing mania and anxiety. This liquid dripped down the frames continuously, even splashing onto the pillows Tang Mu and she used for sleeping.