Xu Xi never expected he'd be teamed up with the tall, skinny guy.
He had thought he would still be with the baseball cap young man, but the other had proactively chosen to team up with the Long Dress Girl to investigate the Spirit Medium's residence.
The Suited Man also chose to join them.
That left him and the tall, skinny guy, who naturally became a team to investigate the clinic.
Both quiet people tacitly accepted this arrangement.
For Xu Xi, it made no difference which place he investigated; it was merely a matter of dying more, dying less, or not dying at all.
The tall, skinny guy was purely indifferent, or perhaps he was indeed more interested in the clinic.
Even though it was daytime, no one planned to waste time.
What if the Spirit Medium was also at the Mountain God Temple during the day?
Watching the three figures recede into the distance, the tall, skinny guy turned to look at Xu Xi and suggested, "Since Gao Zhuang is at the clinic during the day, we can go check out his place now."
Xu Xi naturally had no reason to disagree.
After asking Village Chief Zhu for Gao Zhuang's address, the two headed in that direction.
Walking along, Xu Xi felt a bit unaccustomed to the change.
Used to the baseball cap young man who would chatter every now and then, suddenly switching to the quiet, reserved tall, skinny guy made the atmosphere feel awkward to him.
Wait a minute... huh?
Xu Xi's footsteps subconsciously halted.
The tall, skinny guy beside him also stopped.
Not far ahead of them, a thin, small figure was trudging slowly forward, carrying a basket of grass on his back.
It was Ah Wang.
"This direction... it leads to his mother's grave."
The tall, skinny guy had tailed Ah Wang once before and was basically familiar with his routes.
"Should we follow?"
The tall, skinny guy asked as if it were just an offhand question, but Xu Xi couldn't help but glance at him.
The way he was staring intently at Ah Wang's retreating back clearly showed he very much wanted to follow.
"Let's go." Xu Xi thought for a moment and agreed.
Come to think of it, they had paid almost no attention to this boy.
Especially after they started suspecting the Spirit Medium, one could say they had completely ignored him.
Although he didn't understand why the tall, skinny guy wanted to follow him again, it would just cost a bit of time. As long as they finished investigating Gao Zhuang's house before five o'clock, it was fine.
The two followed Ah Wang all the way to a remote hillside.
The first thing that caught Xu Xi's eye was a lonely, small mound of earth. A wooden plank stood upright on the mound, bearing crooked, crudely carved marks.
This was probably the tombstone Ah Wang had carved for his mother with his own hands. Just as the tall, skinny guy had said before, it looked simple and crude.
They simply watched as Ah Wang gently crouched down, took the basket of grass off his back, pulled out handfuls of colorful wildflowers from it, and carefully replaced the flowers in front of the grave whose colors had already begun to fade.
After finishing this task, he silently stared blankly at the grave.
Witnessing this scene, Xu Xi couldn't help but feel a surge of complex emotions.
Losing his father right after birth, his mother perishing in a sea of fire when he was seven, fending for himself alone at such a young age, and then the villagers wanting to sacrifice him to the Mountain God.
Even after his mother's death, she was used as a shield by those with ulterior motives, not even allowed to have a proper burial site.
Xu Xi found it strange that this instance wasn't actually driven by the resentment of Ah Wang's mother.
Failing that, having Ah Wang be the mastermind behind the scenes would also make sense.
Just enduring those rumors and slander would be enough to make this boy turn dark.
But based on the current clues, the village's plight clearly had nothing to do with this mother and son pair.
Just as Xu Xi was thinking that this instance was nothing like the trope of the horror novels he'd read, the tall, skinny guy, who had been standing quietly beside him, suddenly bent down and picked a few dandelions.
Ah Wang was hanging his head, lost in thought, when a touch of white suddenly appeared amidst the colorful wildflowers before him.
He froze for a moment, then looked up in confusion.
The tall, skinny guy didn't offer any words of comfort or ask any questions. He seemed to be simply offering a token of his own regard.
Xu Xi stood still for a few seconds, then finally imitated the tall, skinny guy's actions, picking two dandelions and placing them before that crude tombstone.
His parents had divorced and remarried when he was in elementary school. Since then, he had felt like an unwanted burden, kicked back and forth between the two households. It wasn't until he chose to attend a boarding school in middle school that this life of living under someone else's roof ended.
Accustomed to being a familiar stranger floating outside of two families, he viewed parent-child relationships with particular detachment.
However, even though he had never experienced familial affection himself, that didn't stop him from feeling a unique sense of goodwill towards Ah Wang's mother, who had raised her child alone all by herself.
The actions of the two clearly left Ah Wang at a loss.
After a long while, he whispered softly,
"...Thank you."
[What's going on? How did it suddenly get so heartwarming?]
[Don't mention it, Ah Wang really is quite pitiful.]
[But they're in an instance right now. One wrong move and they're dead. It's better not to have any unnecessary sympathy, right?]
[I can actually understand their actions. You guys haven't seen the player backgrounds released on the official website, have you?]
[Huh? The official website has player background info?]
[...The person above, are you still asleep after a year-long nap?]
[I went to the official website a long time ago to search for their family backgrounds. They're called tragic.]
[Master Cheng Xu's parents divorced when he was little because his dad cheated. And he didn't just cheat with one person. He even brazenly brought someone home when Cheng Xu's mom went back to her parents' place to visit.]
[WTF, that brazen???]
[Yeah. Later, his mom found out and wanted a divorce. His dad disagreed, so they fought a divorce lawsuit. But Master Cheng Xu was awarded to his dad.]
[His dad was quite wealthy, but he wasn't human. Not only did he dump his son on his ex-wife and never ask about him, he was also incredibly stingy towards his ex-wife and son, constantly delaying tuition payments and unwilling to give living expenses.]
[Master Cheng Xu's mom didn't remarry either. She raised her son by working odd jobs.]
[No wonder Master Cheng Xu sympathizes with Ah Wang. It's because he's been through similar hardships.]
[Anyway, Master Cheng Xu and his mom lived a pretty tough life. But his mom loved him very much, and she's still alive now. Compared to Ah Wang, he's still luckier.]
[But Master Cheng Xu was chosen for the instance, a life-or-death situation. His mom must be heartbroken.]
[Definitely. Can't be helped. God Hunt selects players randomly. If we could choose, I'd be the first to figure out a way to send his dad in.]
[...Wait, since when were the player backgrounds on the official website that detailed?]
[Ahem, alright. Actually, someone specifically went and investigated thoroughly, then exposed it. They just wanted to nail Master Cheng Xu's dad to the pillar of shame.]
[That someone wouldn't be you, would it?]
[...]
[What about Master Xu Xi then?]
[An orphan raised in a welfare institution.]
[???]
[At least Master Cheng Xu has a mom who loves him. Master Xu Xi doesn't even have a mom anymore???]
[Damnable Flash Play, even bullying orphans!]