My Dead Mother Was Hanging Above My Bed

“What problem?” Bai Ke blurted out, forgetting the melon in his hand.

Su Lai ran through the list of survivors in his mind: Bai Ke, Bei Yao, Qi Mu, Qi Mao, Hu Xiang, and the toothpick-wielding older and younger duo.
Excluding himself, there were actually only seven survivors left.

Su Lai: “Players have to live in the urban village for seven days and seven nights, right?”

Bai Ke nodded. Su Lai continued.

“Excluding today, that leaves six days.”
“The village committee requires players to submit a list of peepers every day. Assuming the worst-case scenario—that the list submitted every day is incorrect—then at least six players would have to be sacrificed to clear the instance.”

“This means, in the end, only one player could complete the main quest,” Su Lai analyzed.

Bai Ke corrected him. “Two people.”
“Besides Director Jia, who died and was eliminated this afternoon, and the socially phobic youth who was just forcibly isolated, there are still eight of us players left.”

Bai Ke had naturally included Su Lai among the players.

“I get it!” Bei Yao’s dim eyes brightened, her speaking pace unconsciously quickening.
“Even if it’s two people, there’s no guarantee that in the coming days, some players won’t die due to insufficient survival time or a severe drop in mental stability.”
“Qi Mu and Qi Mao are siblings. That fierce older and younger duo also seem like they might be related. They won’t easily give up on each other. So they’ll rack their brains to find the correct answer about the peeper. Delaying and shifting blame is way too risky for a duo.”

Once you realize the relationship between the instance duration, punishment mechanism, and player survival count, you become aware that there are too many uncertain factors. The strategy of sacrificing the weak to save oneself is too risky.

Finding all the peepers in the urban village and submitting a complete list to the village committee was the optimal solution for the instance.
It might even unlock rare items and achievements.

Even though it was the optimal solution, the risk of NPCs going berserk and the consequent drop in affection also put the player submitting the list in a dangerous position.

At this stage of the instance, Su Lai, as a non-player, could more acutely perceive the cruelty of the rules.

Excluding him, ten players had actually entered at the start. But that night, only eight rooms were available for rent in the urban village. This meant two players had no place to rent. Under normal circumstances, both Bai Ke and the suited man would have turned into behaviorally abnormal vagrants on the first night, been forcibly detained by the staff, and finally appeared on screen as peaceful memorial photos.

According to the preset arrangement of the rules, only eight people should have survived the first night.

Eight people surviving seven days. In the worst-case scenario where all answers were wrong, one player would need to be sent for forced isolation every night. Not counting deaths from other factors, just the punishments alone might require seven people.

It was unclear what happened to players punished with isolation. But from the looks of it, if they couldn’t find the correct answer, the later stages would turn into a battle among players.

* * * *

After Uncle Wang finished the melon in the basin, he covered the TV with its cloth before pressing the off button.

It was time to rest. Su Lai headed towards Wang Xiaosi’s room. Bai Ke stared at the pink flip-flops moving up the stairs, hesitating as if wanting to say something.

Because of Wang Chunying’s distrust last night, Su Lai had stayed with him in the storage room. Although the conditions were poor, having two players together meant they could look out for each other if something happened.
Even though, for a boss, looking out for each other was mostly one-sided…

Tonight, Lai-ge had gone to Wang Xiaosi’s bedroom. Wang Chunying had also given him a slightly better room. It was clean and tidy, but he was alone. In this urban village that became “noisy” at night, he couldn’t help feeling uneasy.

As soon as he entered the room, Su Lai lay down on the bed and turned on the air conditioner. After a whole day of折腾, he was exhausted.

Tired, but worth it. He’d earned ten thousand from the delivery job and another six thousand from the rent.

A daily income of sixteen thousand. Higher than six months of his real-life delivery work.
Left eye twitching for wealth. He believed it now.

Probably because Wang Chunying had threatened the neighbors at noon, after he closed his eyes, the various whispering discussions had lightened. But the sounds of exhaust fans and pots and pans were still lively.

Cooking in the middle of the night—these neighbors probably lived in the underworld.

Su Lai listened at the wall for a while. Finding no useful information, he simply put in his earplugs and went to sleep peacefully.

In the middle of the night, the air conditioner stopped. Su Lai woke up in a room like a steam box.

Besides the stuffy heat, the itchy sensation on his face annoyed him.
Ants? Or American cockroaches?

Su Lai instinctively reached up to brush it away. But what he touched wasn’t ants or cockroaches. It was soft, cold strands, wispy and thin—

It was hair.
Long hair, a bit dry and frizzy.

The fermented smell of blood permeated the room. Su Lai’s nose twitched. His eyelashes fluttered slightly.

Conventional wisdom said this wasn’t a good time to open your eyes immediately.

The smell of blood was mixed with the smell of the chopping board. Su Lai’s throat moved. He spoke lazily.
“Mom, what’s wrong in the middle of the night?”

In this house, the only one who could appear in his room at night and have long hair was Wang Chunying. There was no second “person.”

“Did I disturb your sleep?” The moment Wang Chunying spoke, the itchy sensation vanished. The feeling of being watched lessened too.
“I couldn’t sleep soundly. Wanted to come see you. Confirm that you really came home.”
“Me appearing by your bed in the middle of the night… you’re not scared, are you?” Wang Chunying asked cautiously.

Su Lai: “…”
If it were a “normal” person, they’d probably be dead from fright by now.

“Can I open my eyes?” Su Lai checked, mentally preparing himself.

Wang Chunying was silent for two seconds.
“You can… if you don’t mind Mom looking disheveled.”

Su Lai opened his eyes.
Good grief.
This mom was truly disheveled. Her whole body was hanging upside down from the ceiling like a fan. Her hair cascaded down directly above Su Lai’s face.

As Wang Chunying’s suspended body swayed, her hair swept across Su Lai’s face and chest, swinging back and forth like a swing.

Su Lai: “…”
An ordinary person could die from fright a second time.

“Little Four, are you afraid of a mom like this?” The swaying Wang Chunying asked softly, her tone like she was talking to a very small child.

Su Lai stared at her pale face and blurred features. He shook his head.
“Not scared.”
“Mom, the air conditioner broke. It’s a bit hot.” He glanced at the air conditioner starting to leak water.
“How about you swing faster? Fan me?”

This time, it was the mother who was momentarily stunned.
Then, she really started swinging like a fan, bringing wisps of coolness to her “son” lying on the bed.

Coolness, both physical and metaphysical.

“That’s wonderful. You don’t mind Mom being like this. That’s really wonderful…” Wang Chunying’s voice trembled slightly. Though she tried to克制 herself, she couldn’t hide her excitement.
“Mom was always worried you’d be scared… but Mom wanted to see you… only by looking at you could Mom feel at ease…”

“The years you weren’t home, Mom looked everywhere for you and couldn’t find you. Sometimes I missed you so much, I’d just sit in your room. I’d sit all night long. The days passed so quickly.” Wang Chunying rambled on. More than conversation, it sounded like she was talking to herself.

Su Lai took out his earplugs and quietly listened to Wang Chunying’s rambling. Finally, he nodded.
“Coming to my room is nice. There’s air conditioning.”

Wang Chunying, hanging upside down from the ceiling, increased her swinging speed.
“Little Four, is this cooler?”

Su Lai glanced at the opposite wall. A woman’s shadow was reflected on it, swaying.
He stared at the upside-down shadow for a few seconds. He remembered his grandmother saying, when he was little, that a woman had hanged herself. Her body had swung from the ceiling all night. Someone in the opposite building saw it and thought it was just the wind, the shadow of tree branches swaying on the window.

“It was a very cold winter. The trees had lost all their leaves. Whether it was a jujube tree or a scholar tree, I can’t remember.” At the time, Grandma had stared blankly at the swaying tree shadows. For a long time afterwards, she never mentioned it again.

“Mom, I’m afraid you’ll get dizzy.” Su Lai shifted his gaze to Wang Chunying on the ceiling.

“Mom’s not dizzy. Mom’s afraid you’ll be hot.” Wang Chunying was still accelerating. Her loose hair floated up.

From outside the window came a continuous bang bang bang, as if someone was forcefully closing their windows.

Understandable. An upside-down woman’s shadow swaying in the opposite building—any neighbor would find it unbearable. Closing the windows was definitely the way to go. Out of sight, out of mind.

“Not hot anymore. You can come down.”
Not only was it not hot, but because of Wang Chunying’s presence, the room’s temperature kept dropping.

If he had a mental stability value like the players, it would probably be dropping right now, right?
Then again, hard to say… Su Lai speculated idly.

Wang Chunying: “It’s fine. Hanging like this is good for Mom’s neck and lower back.”
“Little Four, you came home. Mom feels at ease.” She repeated over and over.

Su Lai: “Mom, but I’ll still leave home later.”

“Where are you going?”

Su Lai thought: back to the real world, of course.
But what he said was:
“I’m going out to work and earn money. When I’ve made enough, I’ll buy you and Uncle Wang a big house.”

Wang Chunying was taken aback for a moment, then slowly started swaying again.
“I know. When kids grow up, they have to leave this place. It’s too small here, living under the eyes and tongues of the neighbors. No freedom.”
“You’re grown up too. Coming back this once, Mom feels at ease. It’s enough for Mom to know you’re doing well…” Wang Chunying’s voice grew softer.
“Little Four, will you let Mom stay with you tonight?”

“Okay.”
Su Lai wasn’t afraid of Wang Chunying hanging from the ceiling. He didn’t refuse, not out of fear.

This was Wang Chunying’s home. This room was Wang Xiaosi’s bedroom.
Wang Chunying, as Wang Xiaosi’s mother, certainly had the right to stay here. Whether her current appearance was scary had nothing to do with it.

No matter how scary she looked, she was still a mother missing her lost child.

“Mom, in the end, you stayed here too, didn’t you?” Su Lai asked. He guessed that Wang Chunying was actually no longer alive. After all, living people didn’t have such murky eyes.

Wang Chunying was silent for a moment, then said.
“Yes. Before you came back, Mom was always hanging here.”

Su Lai nodded, saying nothing.
It seemed that Wang Chunying, missing her son desperately, had hanged herself in Wang Xiaosi’s room.

“Little Four, sleep. Mom won’t disturb you. I’ll just hang here and fan you.” Wang Chunying said.

Su Lai didn’t argue. He closed his eyes again.
His room was indeed cooler than when the AC was on.

Mothers always found a way, he thought.

“Oh, right, Mom.” Su Lai suddenly remembered something.
“Do you know Xiao Chang?”

Since entering the instance, Su Lai had been dreaming of Xiao Chang more frequently.
He believed Xiao Chang was connected to this contamination, or rather, to this community.

Since people in the real world couldn’t answer his years-long question, he might as well ask the NPC original residents in the instance.

Previously, he hadn’t fully gained Wang Chunying’s trust, so he didn’t dare ask.
Now was the intimate moment of mother-son late-night talk. The perfect time for heartfelt questions.

“Xiao Chang?” Wang Chunying’s swinging slowed a little, but didn’t stop.
“I think I’ve seen that name somewhere.”

Su Lai immediately opened his eyes.
“Where?”