Chapter 83: The Endless Cycle
The atmosphere inside the coffin grew strangely quiet.
Neither Shen Yu nor Yun Han spoke.
The only sounds were the muffled thuds of earth falling onto the coffin lid and the steady rhythm of nails being hammered into place above them.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
No one knew how much time had passed.
Perhaps only a few minutes.
Perhaps much longer.
Gradually, the heavy weight of the soil settled over the coffin completely.
They had been buried.
The last traces of daylight disappeared.
An icy darkness swallowed the cramped wooden coffin.
As the air inside became thinner, the temperature dropped noticeably. At the same time, the corpse lying beneath them began to emit an increasingly pungent odor of decay.
The smell spread through the confined space until even breathing became unpleasant.
Yun Han frowned instinctively.
She covered her nose with one hand, her delicate brows knitting together in discomfort.
"...It smells awful."
She tried to shift away from the corpse, but there was nowhere to move inside the narrow coffin.
Just then—
A strong arm suddenly wrapped around her waist.
Before she could react, Shen Yu gently pulled her away from the groom’s corpse and into his embrace.
Her back rested against his warm chest.
His other arm carefully circled around her shoulders, creating a barrier between her and the decomposing body beneath them.
Yun Han’s entire body stiffened.
Her beautiful eyes widened in disbelief.
"Y-You..."
"You shameless rogue!"
Her face flushed crimson beneath the dim light filtering through the cracks of the coffin.
Shen Yu simply smiled.
"Sometimes," he said calmly, "a man has to be a little shameless."
He adjusted their positions slightly, making sure she no longer touched the corpse beneath them.
"I don’t know whether this is proper etiquette."
"But I do know two things."
"You’ve been shivering ever since we were buried."
"And..."
He glanced toward the shriveled corpse lying beside them.
"You clearly dislike being so close to him."
Yun Han lowered her gaze.
Shen Yu continued with an easy smile.
"Right now, you’re lying on top of me."
"The corpse is underneath."
"You won’t have to smell him as much anymore."
"And..."
"Our body heat should keep us from freezing."
Warm breath brushed against Yun Han’s ear.
The redness on her cheeks deepened immediately.
She opened her mouth several times, clearly wanting to argue.
Yet after hesitating for a long while, the only sentence she managed to say was spoken through gritted teeth.
"...He’s not my husband."
The words escaped almost instinctively.
The moment they left her lips—
Ding!
Yun Han’s Favorability +4.
Current Favorability: 25.
Favorability Milestone Reached.
Memory CG I Unlocked.
Play Memory Sequence?
Shen Yu silently chose No.
There would be time to explore her memories later.
Right now, staying alive came first.
Besides...
He had a feeling forcing the moment would only make things awkward.
As he pondered what to say next, Yun Han suddenly shifted.
Instead of keeping her back against him, she carefully turned around.
Now she faced him directly.
The movement brought them even closer together.
Their foreheads were barely a hand’s breadth apart.
Yun Han lowered her eyes shyly.
"...I don’t know why."
"But..."
"I feel uncomfortable turning my back to you."
Shen Yu blinked.
"...Really?"
She nodded almost imperceptibly.
The atmosphere inside the tiny coffin suddenly became strangely intimate.
Neither of them knew what to say.
For several seconds, they simply stared at one another.
Then...
Almost at the same time...
Both of them laughed softly.
The tension vanished.
The gloomy coffin somehow felt less oppressive.
Only the unfortunate groom’s corpse trapped beneath them seemed destined to remain the forgotten third wheel.
If the dead truly possessed emotions...
He would probably be cursing them by now.
"Don’t move."
Yun Han spoke quietly.
Perhaps because the coffin was so cramped...
Or perhaps because Shen Yu’s embrace felt unexpectedly reassuring...
She slowly relaxed.
Resting against his chest, she closed her eyes.
A few strands of short hair brushed lightly across his chin.
Through the gaps in her crimson wedding robe, her fair skin was faintly visible beneath the soft fabric.
After remaining silent for a while...
She let out a tiny, contented hum.
"Mmm..."
It was barely audible.
Yet Shen Yu heard it clearly.
The exhausted girl gradually drifted into a light sleep.
For the first time in who knew how many years...
She seemed able to relax.
Shen Yu remained perfectly still.
He didn’t dare move even a little.
He simply watched the transparent system notifications quietly appear before his eyes.
Favorability +1.
A few moments later...
Favorability +1.
Then again...
Favorability +1.
The numbers climbed steadily before finally stopping.
Current Favorability: 30.
Shen Yu released a quiet breath.
He had no intention of taking advantage of the situation.
First...
He wasn’t the type of person to exploit someone’s trust.
Second...
He had already experienced how unpredictable these supernatural beings could be.
One careless action might erase every bit of goodwill he had painstakingly earned.
Besides...
An absurd thought suddenly crossed his mind.
"...Yang Jin isn’t going to suddenly appear inside this coffin..."
"...Right?"
He instinctively looked around the cramped space.
Nothing happened.
No familiar cold aura appeared.
No terrifying hospital phantom.
No jealous ghostly doctor.
After waiting several seconds, Shen Yu finally relaxed.
"As expected."
"This isn’t her territory."
"Each horror instance belongs to its own ruler."
"It wouldn’t make sense for her to appear here."
Just then—
The system notification returned.
Memory CG I Loading...
Darkness swallowed his vision.
A warm bedroom slowly appeared before his eyes.
Sunlight streamed gently through lace curtains.
The room was neat and cozy.
A little girl lay beneath a pink blanket.
She couldn’t have been more than seven years old.
Her cheeks were flushed with fever.
Despite being sick, she tightly hugged a worn copy of Three Hundred Tang Poems.
The little girl looked toward the gentle man sitting beside her bed.
He wore glasses.
His smile was warm and patient.
"Daddy."
She blinked innocently.
"What does it mean..."
"’Raising my head, I gaze at the bright moon. Lowering it, I think of home’?"
The man smiled kindly.
He gently brushed her hair away from her forehead.
"It means..."
"When you grow older..."
"And life takes you far away..."
"You’ll suddenly realize..."
"That the place you once considered ordinary..."
"Was actually the warmest place in the world."
The little girl listened seriously.
Then she tilted her head.
"I don’t understand."
The father chuckled softly.
"That’s because you’re still little."
"When you grow up..."
"You’ll naturally understand."
The smile on the little girl’s face disappeared.
She suddenly grabbed his sleeve tightly.
"No."
"I don’t want to understand."
"I hope..."
She looked at him with eyes filled with childish sincerity.
"I hope Daddy never has to explain this poem to me again."
"I hope..."
"You’ll always stay with me."
"And I’ll always stay with you."
The man’s eyes became slightly moist.
He gently pinched her little nose.
"Our Hanhan..."
"...has finally learned how to worry about other people."
The little girl laughed happily.
"Daddy!"
The warm scene slowly dissolved.
Buzz.
Shen Yu opened his eyes once more.
His expression had become unusually cold.
Everything now made sense.
Yun Han hadn’t been born in Cemetery Village.
She hadn’t willingly become a ghost bride.
Her father was educated.
Gentle.
Loving.
There was no way such parents would sell their own daughter into a place like this.
Only one explanation remained.
Someone...
Had stolen her.
Human traffickers.
The villagers had kidnapped a child.
Raised her like livestock.
Then buried her alive as a bride for a dead man.
Shen Yu slowly clenched his fists.
"...Disgusting."
His voice was barely above a whisper.
"What a filthy village."
Looking down, he noticed something warm soaking through his clothes.
Yun Han was crying in her sleep.
Crystal-clear tears rolled silently down her cheeks.
Each drop landed against Shen Yu’s chest.
They weren’t merely tears.
They were the grief of a little girl who had lost her home...
And never found her way back.
Shen Yu gently placed a hand over hers.
"I’ll take you home."
He spoke so quietly that even he wasn’t sure whether the sleeping girl had heard him.
Meanwhile...
Above the buried coffin...
Time itself seemed to accelerate.
The entire Cemetery Village entered a bizarre state.
The villagers standing in the courtyard flickered like fading shadows.
One after another...
They disappeared.
The middle-aged couple who had presided over the wedding stood motionless before slowly merging into the enormous tombstones behind them.
Their flesh dissolved.
Their bodies fused completely with stone.
Finally—
Both tombstones sank into the earth.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Across the entire village...
Countless new tombstones erupted from the ground.
Every household.
Every courtyard.
Every narrow alley.
Stone monuments burst upward like weeds after rain.
Even the two gatekeepers standing silently at the village entrance began to petrify.
Their bodies cracked apart.
Gray stone spread over their skin.
Within moments...
Nothing remained except two towering tombstones standing vigil over the abandoned village.
It was as though the entire village itself...
Was slowly transforming into a vast cemetery.