Bizarre Honkai, a Wife-Chasing Crematorium

"Yes!" Seele subconsciously touched her hair. It wasn't wet. She had already left that world...

In that world, she was lonely. Only by returning to the mansion and seeing the gentle Li Mo could she escape her tragic fate and unfair treatment. The humiliation she had suffered seemed to have disappeared completely, as if it had never happened.

In the eyes of her companions in this world, all her actions were very normal, but from Seele's own perspective, all she could feel was boundless malice and discrimination.

"I'm sorry..." Seele lowered her head and murmured softly. Her voice was so small that even Bronya next to her couldn't hear it clearly.

"What are you saying, Seele?"

Li Mo operated the wheelchair to Seele's side, reached out, and patted her small head. "What are you saying? You have to speak louder for others to hear you. If you don't want others to know, you can hide it in your heart."

Seele was stunned for a moment, then nodded silently.

"I think this fairy tale book might be more suitable for you, Seele."

Li Mo took out the first fairy tale book signed by Seele Vollerei and placed it in her hands.

A strange feeling...

Li Mo repeatedly confirmed that Seele's hair was dry and smooth, but why did his fingertips feel slightly sticky? He withdrew his hand, rubbed his fingers together, and the sticky, wet feeling was gone.

"Thank you, Brother." Seele hugged the fairy tale book and said after a moment's hesitation, "I want to take a bath first..."

"Go ahead. You don't need my permission for that."

After getting Li Mo's approval, Seele quickly went upstairs, walked into her room, and threw her schoolbag aside. She opened the wardrobe and took out the thick clothes Li Mo had bought for her.

It's so nice...

In the other world, her clothes were thin. In winter, she shivered from the cold, her body trembling uncontrollably. The Li Mo in that world didn't buy her extra padded jackets or coats. The Li Mo in this world was very gentle, treated her very well, and bought her many warm clothes.

But...

"If I leave this home, all the warmth will disappear..."

Seele squatted on the ground in grievance, burying her head in the thick padded jacket, feeling the hard-won warmth and softness that would soon disappear. But if she didn't do this, everyone would be killed by her.

If everyone in the orphanage was also killed by her, what would her gentle brother think of her? Would he still be as good to her as he was now?

Only hatred...

He would cry and laugh while strangling her, the veins on his arms bulging, his face ferocious as he roared, "The children are all dead! The children are all dead!"

Then he would try various ways to kill her to end this tragedy, but a tragedy is a tragedy. Once it happens, it's irreversible. Just like the many times before.

"Go, Seele... six more years. Just endure for six more years... everyone will live, and Brother will live too..."

The fairy tale told in the book was a prophecy that would surely come true.

Downstairs, the other children were as usual, some cooking, some studying in their rooms.

Li Mo pulled Bronya aside and asked, "Duckie, how is Seele doing at school? You're in the same class as her, so you should know about her experiences at school, right?"

Bronya showed a displeased expression, pouting her small mouth. For some reason, she always felt a strange annoyance when she heard this nickname.

"The Bronya has a name. The Bronya is called Bronya."

"Alright, Bronya. So how is Seele doing at school? Is she happy? Is anyone bullying her?" Li Mo didn't want to waste too much time joking with Bronya, so he went along with her, patted the Duckie's head, and pretended to be very casual.

Bronya stood there motionlessly, seemingly in thought. After about half a minute, Bronya said with confidence, "With the Bronya around, no one in school dares to bully Seele!"

Li Mo sighed helplessly and shook his head, "I mean, Seele's performance in class, and what it's like having lunch with you."

"Emmm... the Bronya has thought of it. The teacher likes Seele very much and always calls on Seele to answer questions in class. The Bronya's Seele is very smart! She can answer every time. The classmates will clap many times a day."

"And for meals, the Bronya feeds Seele the delicious food in her bowl. Seele is very happy and will eat until she is full."

"On the way home from school, the Bronya holds Seele's hand. Seele's hand is small and soft, and it's very comfortable to hold..."

As she spoke, Bronya raised her neck like a swan, showing a very proud expression.

Li Mo was stunned. Was the Duckie showing off to him? What was there to... Damn it! The rabbit is eating the grass by its own burrow, and I haven't even had a bite!

Calming down, Li Mo analyzed Bronya's answer word by word, glancing at Bronya out of the corner of his eye. Bronya probably wouldn't lie. There was no need. Seeing her smug little expression, Li Mo's remaining doubts also disappeared. One hundred percent she wasn't lying.

But if what Bronya said was true, then why would Seele still use a fake smile to hide her true feelings? From their brief interaction last night, Seele was clearly very lonely and desolate.

With Bronya and the other children's company, her school life was also very good. She could completely feel her own value in school. A child with a full life wouldn't come to him for help in the middle of the night because she couldn't sleep.

Li Mo tried hard to recall where he had wronged Seele, but after thinking about it, he found that he had done everything he could, just short of putting Seele on a pedestal. To say he had wronged her, Li Mo thought it was impossible.

"Wait, why are you in such a hurry to leave?" Li Mo grabbed the departing Bronya.

Bronya said righteously and naturally, "Seele hasn't finished her bath yet. The Bronya can go in and wash with Seele."

Li Mo let go of his hand, understanding.

"Go ahead. Remember to help Seele wash up."

"The Bronya will."

Li Mo let Bronya go and returned to his room on the fifth floor alone. He needed to sort out the clues he had collected these past few days.

"I still couldn't help it today and went to the fourth floor."

"But I didn't find anything wrong."

He didn't dare to turn on the lights. The pictures on the fourth floor were very bizarre. Li Mo was afraid that turning on the lights would attract the ghosts inside. In the dim light, Li Mo took the first fairy tale book and quickly left.

The first fairy tale book was still full of dust, but Li Mo noticed fingerprints, probably from when he had taken the book last time and wiped off some of the dust. So, the fourth floor was constantly resetting, but the fairy tale book was not. Or it hadn't reached a specific condition. Only when the condition was met and the rule was triggered could it, like the floor of the fourth floor, return to a certain fixed state.

"Is it a ritual? Unchanging, until someone completes the ritual."

Li Mo stated the essence of this phenomenon. Before the ritual was over, the Bizarre phenomenon would only repeat itself, returning to some initial distorted point. The ghost wedding on Mount Taixuan was like this.

"Isn't the ritual on the fourth floor just soul-ferrying? But now the fourth floor hasn't become a Soul-Ferrying Passage. It's very likely that there is no ritual on the fourth floor. The ritual belongs to the entire haunted house."

"But I really don't know what kind of ritual it is. It's a headache."

"The only clue is the time when the princess completely turned into a witch in the dark fairy tale, which is her eighteenth birthday."

"But it seems that as she approaches eighteen, the princess will intermittently turn into a witch at night and then kill people who meet the rule."

Li Mo pressed his temples. He was thinking about whether Seele was the princess. If she was, how should he deal with her to avoid the tragedy in the story?

"It would be great if the notebook were still here."

Li Mo couldn't help but sigh. He had already said it many times. He clearly knew that using the notebook would lead to a bigger predicament, but he still couldn't help but want to use it.

Li Mo shook his head and threw this irrational thought out of his mind.

"Let's see if Seele comes tonight. If she does, I'll try to get some clues from her."

Li Mo did not change his life trajectory. Eating, chatting with the children, and then returning to his room to have a loving chat with Shigure Kira.

The time passed ten o'clock at night again. This time, the knock on the door was ten minutes earlier than last time. At 10:10, Seele pushed open the door and stood at the entrance, asking cautiously, "Brother, can I come in?"

Li Mo couldn't quite understand why Seele was so cautious. It was as if she had post-traumatic stress disorder, asking and probing with every action. This level of caution was on par with his when dealing with paranormal incidents.

But this was home. What kind of place was home? If you couldn't relax even at home, it would be a very painful thing. A person can't always be on edge. Just like a spring, if it's pressed too hard for too long, it will break and collapse at some point in the future.

"Seele, you don't have to be so serious. As long as I haven't forbidden it, it's allowed. Come in. What do you want to talk about today? Or should I continue to tell you a story?"

Seele was stunned for a moment, took out the first fairy tale book, and nodded, "Yes."

Li Mo's intuition told him that Seele knew the content of the story and could also read Chinese characters. But since Seele didn't want to expose it, he had no reason to expose it. He just needed to treat her with a normal attitude.

Li Mo didn't need to act. This was how he treated children. He gave them a sense of security within his ability and provided a healthy environment for them to grow up in.

The first fairy tale was very simple. Li Mo finished reading it in less than half an hour. The time was past ten, and Seele was not asleep.

"How was this story? Isn't it much better than the one I told you yesterday?" Li Mo asked.

Seele "hmm-ed," but the expression on her face was not the joy Li Mo expected. Instead, she said sadly, "Brother is right. A story that is too beautiful sounds very fake and childish..."

"You don't like it? I didn't expect Seele to prefer darker fairy tales." Li Mo closed the fairy tale book.

But he found that Seele, uncharacteristically, buried her head in his chest.

"Seele?"

Li Mo was holding the fairy tale book and was about to pat Seele on the back to remind her to be mindful of her boundaries. The moment the book touched her back, Seele reflexively stood up and took several steps back. But the sudden movement caused Li Mo's thigh to be squeezed.

"Ugh!" Li Mo showed a pained expression.

"Brother... I, I'm sorry!"

With that, Seele's voice broke, and she wanted to come over and comfort him. But the next second, Seele's pupils contracted, as if she had seen something terrifying, and she immediately fled from Li Mo.

Leaving Li Mo alone, he rubbed his painful thigh. Not standing for a long time had caused his leg muscles to atrophy severely.

"...A stress reaction."

Staring at Seele's departing figure, Li Mo was lost in thought. His action of gently patting her back with a book just now... was there a problem?

"That's not right. Cocolia didn't tell me Seele had such a condition."

"Forget it. We still have a long time to get along. I just need to treat every child normally and focus on observing Seele."

"I'll write my manuscript first. My savings are not enough. If I don't hurry up and make money, I'm afraid I won't make it to next month."

Li Mo opened his computer and started to get busy.

Suddenly, a strange sound came from his mind. Li Mo immediately looked up, almost standing up. But due to his objective conditions, he could only sit in his wheelchair, his legs weak and powerless.

[My name is Li Mo, and I made a choice that I regret immensely.]

[I did not go to the fourth floor tonight. —The tragedy will repeat itself, just like the protagonist in the story, powerlessly watching the world irreversibly slide towards collapse.]

"..."

Li Mo was stunned for a moment, closed the computer, and then frowned.

When? When did the corruption return to him? Did he accidentally get contaminated when he went to the fourth floor today?

"The hint in my mind was obtained in the ninth room on the third floor of the haunted house when I took the risk of bringing Kanagawa Yume into the domain. It did not come from the fourth floor, so it was definitely not from the fourth floor. It's a rule of the ninth room, which is my bedroom."

"But the only place I can think of where I came into contact with corruption is the fourth floor."

"Then where did the hint in my mind come from?"

Li Mo tried hard to recall, but he still couldn't get a specific direction. The only suspicious point was that Seele had hurt him, but no matter what, Seele was not a ghost now, so it was impossible for her to trigger a rule in him.

Li Mo looked around. Suddenly, he found something that shouldn't exist in a familiar place. A burning candle. It was stuck on the wall, burning quietly.

"Who put it there? Not Seele. I've been staring at her since she came in. There's absolutely no chance she could have put a candle here."

"Wait, did Seele leave just now because she saw this candle? Just now... her gaze seemed to be on the wall where the candle was."

Li Mo bit his lip, his expression tense. The sudden appearance of the candle meant that the orphanage was changing into a haunted house. This was a very terrifying thing. There were no living people in the haunted house. Did this mean... everyone would die here?

"I have to find out the reason!" Li Mo hardened his heart. He would not allow anything to happen to the children in the orphanage. Even if this sudden change was very likely due to a ghost in the house, Li Mo absolutely could not back down, nor could he pretend that nothing had happened.

Operating the wheelchair, Li Mo came to the front of the candle, took it down, and touched its body. The candle's body was cold, which meant it had just been lit. But this view needed to be verified.

Li Mo waited patiently for a few minutes and touched the candle's body again, finding that the temperature had risen a lot.

"It can be heated by the flame. The candle is a normal candle, but when I touched it three minutes ago, the candle's body was very cold, which means the candle was just lit and placed there a short while ago."

"Seele couldn't possibly have had a chance to light it. So what is this..."

Li Mo's eyes suddenly widened, as if he had thought of something. He pushed open the door and came to the corridor, only to find that there was also a candle lit on the wall outside his room.

The unannounced change made Li Mo wake up as if from a dream. There were many situations where candles could suddenly appear. But in this situation, there was only one.

The synchronization of the inner and outer worlds.

Li Mo's eyes were cold, staring at the candle whose flame was constantly swaying on the wall. The ghost had revived in the inner world.

"I see. Seele's strangeness lies in this. Although her life is beautiful, she always uses a standard smile to hide her inner pain."

"She can go to the inner world."

"The candle was not placed by Seele, but by the ghost in the inner world. This level of swaying..."

"That ghost is right beside me."

In the corridor, Li Mo sat in his wheelchair, his view facing the exit of the corridor, which was the location of the other eight rooms. Li Mo pressed the rotation button on the controller, and the wheelchair slowly turned towards the wall behind him.

A hair-raising scene appeared before his eyes. A human figure was completely presented on the wall behind him under the candlelight. The figure was deep, and through the refracted shape of the shadow, Li Mo recognized... the shadow was facing him.

The ghost in the inner world knew he was looking at it.

"I don't care what you are, I won't allow you to hurt my family."

"Seele's stress reaction was caused by you."

Li Mo's gaze was sharp. His half-paralyzed state had no combat power, but the words he spoke carried a strong hostility. It was not out of any rule, but completely from human emotion.

Li Mo did not lose his reason. He first operated the wheelchair back to the entrance of the room, then turned off all the lights in the bedroom, and then took out his phone to illuminate himself. In an instant, the fifth floor fell into a thick darkness.

In the darkness, Li Mo's face was illuminated by the phone's light, exceptionally clear.

"I am here."

"If you have the guts, come out and see me."

Li Mo spoke to the darkness that was so thick it was as if it had condensed into a substance.

The human figure on the wall moved, from the end of the corridor to the opposite of the ninth room door, standing quietly and facing Li Mo. Such behavior showed that it could see Li Mo.

At the same time, the darkness seemed to be twisting, flickering, and was very similar to what Li Mo had seen in the pictures on the fourth floor. It was as if a ghost would emerge from the darkness in the next second.

Li Mo clenched his hands, but his powerlessness made his reason prevail. He couldn't leave the room yet. This was the reason why Li Mo returned to the room before turning off the lights.

Now he was alone and had already triggered the rule of being alone, but he hadn't fallen into the inner world, which meant that the change in the haunted house was not complete. The appearance of the candle indicated that the protective rule of the guest room had already been generated. As long as the candle in the room was still burning, the ghost could not kill people.

But if Li Mo left, even if the ghost in front of him was in another world, it might still be able to kill him instantly.

"That's all you've got."

Li Mo closed the door and turned on the lights again. He couldn't control the ghost outside, but he couldn't ignore it, even if it couldn't kill him now.

"The hint is quite clever. If I don't go to the fourth floor tonight, I will regret it immensely, and the tragedy in the fairy tale will be re-enacted in this world."

"But it didn't say I could solve it by going. Maybe I will still regret it if I go to the fourth floor, and it's very likely I'll die there."

"But I have no choice."

Li Mo clenched his phone, turned to look at the elevator, and his heart was in a state of纠结. The time had already reached eleven o'clock at night. The hint in his mind was given to him by the ninth room. The rule of the ninth room was beginning to emerge. If this change was not stopped by going to the inner world, it would sooner or later spread to the entire house.

Li Mo silently took out his phone, found Shigure Kira, hesitated for a moment, edited a text message, and then deleted it all.

"Meaningless..."

"She can't possibly make it back tonight, and I have to go to the fourth floor tonight."

"The hint didn't directly reveal the ending, but it indirectly reminded me that the corruption on the fourth floor is starting to spread. If I don't go tonight, I might miss the best time to remedy it."

"Kira will be back in half a month. If she sees I'm not here and not replying to messages, she'll know what to do."

Take all the children away from the orphanage, and then... and then...

Li Mo stood in front of the elevator door, dazed for a long time. He remembered Shigure Kira had said that if he died, she would come to accompany him after she had dealt with important matters.

"I can't die, I absolutely can't die."

Li Mo pocketed a handgun, although this handgun was very ordinary and could not cause any substantial damage to the Bizarre. But having something was better than nothing.

Then he took out a piece of paper, wrote down the general situation on it, and put it in a locked small box in the bedside table. This way, he could prevent the children from seeing it. Shigure Kira knew the password, so he didn't have to worry about her not knowing what had happened.

Li Mo sent a short message to Shigure Kira: I'm on the fourth floor, come back quickly.

Shigure Kira did not reply, perhaps she was already asleep.

"If things go smoothly, I can still send the children to school during the day after dealing with the ghost on the fourth floor tonight. If not... hmph, when have things ever gone smoothly?"

Li Mo teased himself. After living a peaceful life for more than a decade, he had almost forgotten that he had always been accompanied by death. This time was no exception.

Li Mo held his slightly trembling hand.

"Is it because I haven't dealt with paranormal incidents for too long, so I'm nervous? Or is it fear?"

Li Mo asked himself.

"Perhaps both. Even though I've been paying attention to whether any Bizarre signs have appeared in the manor for more than a decade, my heart seems to have become tired... has developed a rejection..."

"Tired of dealing with the Bizarre."

"Resisting leaving my comfort zone."

Li Mo entered the elevator. When the elevator door closed, he mocked himself helplessly, "Why do I always feel like someone is saying I'm running away? Although I have run away many times."

"But sometimes, it's not that I can run away just because I want to. Now that fate has pushed me off a cliff, I can only face it head-on."