The Nutcracker’s Sinister Smile

Damn it!

The grotesque, twisted monster had completely detached from the steering wheel, waving its sharp claws, and attempting to pounce into the back seat.

Bai Muxue’s heart seized with fright; she didn’t even have time to open her music box.

Then, a deafening roar erupted.

The world seemed to halt at that very moment.

In Bai Muxue’s ears, the sounds of metal twisting, deforming, and glass shattering reverberated.

Meanwhile, her body felt as if it had been violently flung upwards by an immense force, only to be slammed back into the seat with equal brutality.

She couldn’t say how much time had passed.

When Bai Muxue finally opened her eyes again, the car’s interior was a scene of utter wreckage.

With great difficulty, she kicked open the completely deformed car door and stumbled out of the vehicle.

“…Ugh, that hurts.”

Gazing at the luxury car before her, now utterly wrecked from its intimate encounter with a tree stump, Bai Muxue, her knees trembling slightly, couldn’t help but click her tongue in dismay.

‘Another car accident.’

‘It seemed her fate was forever entwined with them, wasn’t it?’

Fortunately, this time she hadn’t sustained any fatal injuries.

However, her black dress was torn in several places, revealing a few fresh crimson scratches on her fair skin.

“Am I being targeted by a monster… or is it something else?”

“Is Sister Wang a monster, secretly lurking within the Bai family?”

“But I recall Sister Wang has been a driver for the Bai family since a long time ago; surely, there shouldn’t be any issue with her…”

‘Moreover, if she truly intended to make a move, she would have had ample opportunities within the Bai family mansion.’

‘Why would she drag me to this desolate place?’

Clutching the music box tightly in her hand, Bai Muxue quietly moved towards the driver’s seat.

She cautiously maintained a safe distance, to prevent any monster from ambushing her from the shadows.

After confirming the safety of her surroundings, the young woman cautiously peered into the car.

The next moment, the young woman’s pupils involuntarily widened.

—Through the shattered window, Sister Wang, in the driver’s seat, had blood gushing from her forehead.

Her eyes were tightly shut, and her head lolled limply to one side.

Her entire body was tightly enveloped by the airbag, clearly having fallen into unconsciousness.

The grotesque, terrifying monster Bai Muxue had seen moments ago now seemed nothing more than a figment of her imagination.

She’s alive!

Sister Wang isn’t dead yet!

Noticing a faint rise and fall in Sister Wang’s chest, Bai Muxue, with no time for further thought, hastily flung open the car door.

Gritting her teeth, she used every ounce of her strength to drag Sister Wang out of the driver’s seat.

Staggering with each step, she carried her to a distant, flat patch of ground and carefully laid her down.

After carefully bandaging Sister Wang’s forehead wound, Bai Muxue, already frail, now felt a wave of dizziness wash over her.

She swayed unsteadily, about to stand up, when she noticed Sister Wang’s hand seemed to be clutching something tightly.

A flicker of hesitation crossed her pretty face.

The young woman tentatively extended her hand, then slowly and carefully, she pried open Sister Wang’s fingers one by one.

—In Sister Wang’s hand was a puppet, a Nutcracker puppet.

“This is…?”

Bai Muxue meticulously examined the puppet in her hand.

The puppet was no larger than her palm.

Beneath its pointed, long hat was a grotesque face twisted into a sinister smile.

Within the unnaturally upturned corners of its mouth, Bai Muxue could even discern tiny, sharp teeth nestled inside, which glinted menacingly in the faint moonlight.

‘Was this puppet truly the culprit…?’

Bai Muxue almost instinctively wanted to smash the thing to smithereens—she had no desire to play the role of a suicidal protagonist in a horror movie.

But upon a second thought, the young woman tucked the puppet back into her pocket.

Shen Jingyi had mentioned before that some monsters would, in the guise of urban legends or online creepypastas, lure ordinary people step by step into their traps.

‘Heh, I wonder if this thing is specifically after me, or if I’m just an innocent bystander who got caught up in it all?’

‘Regardless of the situation, this peculiar little puppet was undoubtedly involved.’

‘Thinking from another perspective, if I simply held onto this little puppet, wouldn’t the mastermind eventually come directly to me?’

After all, Bai Muxue prided herself on being different from those horror movie protagonists who loved to stir up trouble.

She was confident she could counter-kill any demon or monster that dared cross her!

“Next…”

After ensuring Sister Wang was settled, Bai Muxue slowly rose, wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead, and began to survey her surroundings.

Though summer had clearly arrived, fierce winds howled all around her.

The air was thick with the scent of dampness and decay, sending involuntary shivers down her spine.

On the undeveloped road surface, cracks and weeds grew interchangeably.

In the pervasive darkness, this rugged path seemed to stretch on endlessly.

Only a single, abandoned signpost leaned crookedly nearby, its lettering long since faded into illegibility.

‘Where exactly is this, anyway? The city outskirts?’

Indeed, there were many undeveloped areas surrounding Wangdu City.

However, due to exorbitant development costs, most developers had abandoned their projects, leaving behind numerous dilapidated facilities.

This, in turn, had given rise to many urban legends.

Bai Muxue pulled out her phone, its screen already crisscrossed with cracks, only to discover there was absolutely no signal here.

Forget using GPS; she couldn’t even make a call.

“Hahahaha…”

Just as Bai Muxue was contemplating her next move, a faint yet distinct peal of laughter suddenly pierced through the howling wind.

She strained her ears to listen.

The laughter was interspersed with a light, cheerful melody, seeming to drift from the far end of the road.

The joyous tune felt utterly incongruous in this setting, imbuing the air with an eerie sense of absurdity.

‘Laughter, and it sounds like a child’s laughter… here, of all places?’

Bai Muxue frowned, hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to follow the sound forward.

She couldn’t tell how long she had walked; she only knew that the sounds grew steadily clearer.

Looking up, she saw an amusement park abruptly emerge at the edge of her vision.

Multicolor lights flickered against the grim sky, while endless darkness stretched infinitely to either side, like two colossal, unseen claws, enveloping the entire amusement park in a profound gloom.

The wind grew increasingly fierce, as if attempting to deter her from approaching the amusement park.

It howled, tearing the formerly cheerful music into disjointed, hoarse echoes, imbued with an unspeakable sense of dread.

Above the amusement park hung a gigantic inflatable clown.

Its exaggerated, grotesque smiling face appeared exceptionally distorted under the constantly shifting lights.

Its bloodshot eyes, strikingly vivid, seemed to move with a life of their own, as if monitoring every corner around the park.

‘Is this also the work of a monster?’

‘Can a monster’s magic really affect such a vast area?’

The young woman’s heart secretly lurched.

‘Oh, good grief, first I fight a calamity beast, and now I have to outwit a monster… Am I not a villainous young lady?’

‘Why am I starting to work overtime like a certain someone?’

Bai Muxue silently grumbled to herself, lowering her stance and cautiously approaching the main gate.

****

On a nearby road, a blonde young woman in a cowboy hat removed her finger from Sister Wang’s nose.

Her gaze shifted to the heavily deformed car, severely damaged from the impact, and she couldn’t help but frown slightly.

“Tsk, did I arrive too late…?”

“However, it seems this auntie isn’t in critical condition; she’s still breathing…”

“But, there’s probably a child who’s been lured into that amusement park, I must rescue them quickly!”

The young woman adjusted her hat brim, a hint of triumphant sparkle in her honey-colored eyes.

“Hmph, this counts as my first battle in Wangdu City… I must really focus!”

“As long as I make a move, isn’t defeating that purple fellow a piece of cake?”