54 - The Fifth Nightmare

Translated by rabbitrisu

[Poor Li Gui Ring 003 (One Star)]

[Sale Price: 1 yuan]

[Description: The creator used very poor quality technique to imprison a malicious spirit in the ring. It can make a malicious spirit obedient for a short time and provide the power of a two star ghost tool.]

[Limitation: The forcibly imprisoned malicious spirit is very aggressive. It will retaliate against the holder after being controlled for the second time. This is a poor product with terrible side effects.]

After Su Zimo read the text boxes of the fading ring on Su Kun’s hands, his eyes fell on the sale price of only 1 yuan and the limitations box that mentioned the ring was terrible. Su Zimo suddenly felt that the mysterious system in his pair of glasses was using that price to indicate its dislike of the ‘Poor Li Gui Ring.’

After all, no matter how common a one star ghost tool was, the prices started at ten yuan.

“Exquisite ring.” Su Zimo glanced at his sunken-eyed third uncle. Apart from being very thin, Su Kun had no flaws in his appearance, but perhaps due to his too-gloomy eyes, a gossip tabloid once said that he would be ignored for his temperament.

It’s precisely because of that dark history that Su Kun was obsessed with jewelry and luxury goods and activities. When he appears in front of a camera, he likes to decorate himself, but when he comes home, he looks simpler.

“This is an antique ring that your third uncle bought at a high price. Even if Master Su speaks, he probably won’t give it to you.” Second Uncle Su Duan was the largest among the Su family and the one who enjoyed attending cocktail parties the most.

Maybe it’s because of his grumpy temper, but those high-class people in formal wear and drinking red wine while dancing to classical music don’t like the second master of the Su family. Even if he was Second Master Su, no one likes a guest who slams the piano when drunk.

Therefore, Su Duan was only welcomed by some upstarts and dog meat friends most of the time. The ‘cocktail parties’ he attended were often described by Su Heng as ‘chaos and smoke at sixes and sevens.’ ¹

Someone once said that Su Heng had been a hero in business for a lifetime. Their biggest omission was that he completely neglected his growing sons after the death of his wife, and completely channeled his pain over her loss into dedication to his career. The continuous expansion of various industries under Su group allowed the Su family to secure its seat as the first-ranked family.

But when Grandpa Su Heng came back to his senses and wanted to look after his four sons, he found that the eldest had become a playboy, the second was a drunk, the third was corrupt, and the fourth was unwilling to invest in business.

But none of that has anything to do with Su Zimo. As long was there was no real instigator behind the original Su family car accident, Su Zimo would continue honoring his blood ties. As long as there was no instigator of the car accident…

“It’s really a beautiful ring.” Su Zimo smiled and nodded. “It just doesn’t match Third Uncle’s temperament and looks a bit awkward. The agate ring that Third Uncle wore when we met last time was quite beautiful.”

“The power of this ring… Hak- You can’t understand the value of this ring. Ten agate rings aren’t as valuable as this one.” Speaking of his own collection, Su Kun’s voice wasn’t so sour. “This is a magical treasure, a masterpiece that ordinary people can’t obtain. It’s the only one, and it took a lot of money to get it.”

Except for the fourth uncle, Su Ni, the four sons of the Su family all had profitable industries under their names. So if Su Kun said ‘a lot of money,’ it must be an enormous expense.

Su Zimo looked at the ring called ‘Poor Li Gui Ring 003’ and felt that there were at least two other rings like it. It also shouldn’t be called a masterpiece.

The most important thing was that Su Zimo felt that the ring wasn’t taken by Su Kun from the nightmare world. He shouldn’t even be a trainer. Someone found some unstable ghost tools and ignored their terrible side effects to directly sell them to the rich and curious at incredibly high prices.

Su Kun is one of the victims.

“Since it’s a collectible, it’s better to lock it in a safe. After all, Third Uncle still looks better wearing that agate ring. Don’t wear this one often.” Su Zimo urged him secretly.

“It just doesn’t make sense to ordinary people like you.” Su Kun touched the ring on his hand, sneered, rose from the sofa, then walked to the dining table. “Aren’t we going to have dinner? And you have to let the lawyer confirm, right?”

“Where are Zixiang, Zilan, and Zihui?” Su Zimo looked around the main hall, but didn’t find the three children of his second and third uncles.

Su Zixiang and Su Zilan from his second uncle’s family were five years apart. The elder brother was in his third year in university, while the younger sister should have just entered high school.

Su Zihui was his third uncle’s only daughter. It was said that she and Su Zilan were classmates. Because Su Kun’s wife was also from a high class family, even if he wanted to, Su Kun couldn’t continue extending branches and scattering leaves. ²

The Su family doesn’t actually have the habit of deciding the first character in the name for the next generation, but maybe after Grandpa Su named him ‘Zimo,’ his second and third sons also gave ‘Zi’ to their children. Only the fourth son, who was more casual, excluded himself from giving similar names.

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“I consulted the lawyer earlier. It’s okay if Huihui and the other children can’t spare the time to attend dinner.” Su Gan, who walked out of the lounge, explained. “I originally wanted Xiangxiang to come, but he’s attending university abroad and hasn’t come back for a long time.”

“So Zixiang went to university abroad?” There were so many things Su Zimo didn’t know. After regaining control of his body, he hadn’t even left Shoushan where the manor was located – unless it was to go to Jiangdu through An Yu Yi Yu.

“Zixiang was unlucky. He was born a few months later than you, so he had to work hard to study finance abroad, saying that he wanted to start from scratch like his great grandfather.” Su Kun’s words at that moment were venomous. “Unlike Zimo, you’re so relaxed. The old man helped prepare everything.”

“Pa!” Su Duan, who had just sat down at the dining table, slapped his chopsticks down on the table. The Su family’s dining habits still consisted of traditional Chinese food. It never favored western styles or knives and forks. “This third child, you don’t need to speak of my son’s affairs. It doesn’t matter how powerful he is, he’s my son. Don’t think you two can’t take me seriously even if you have a good relationship.”

Su Duan’s tone was like a firecracker. After sitting down on the side closest to the main seat, he glared at Su Kun and fiddled with the tableware. “Our task is just to finish this meal. After eating, each of us go back to our homes.”

“You care about your son just like that old man used to. I don’t care about those words, can’t I take care of my nephew?” Su Kun sneered. “With you as a role model, it’s a miracle that Zixiang could enter a prestigious university abroad with his own ability. Compared to those in other sons who do nothing, or take over the family business without even passing university, he’s much better.”

“Zimo, this uncle is of course not talking about you, just talking about the sons of other families.” Su Kun took a wine glass next to the main seat.

“Actually, I think my daughter is pretty good, too.” Su Gan put on a heartless expression. “I have a daughter studying at university in Jiangdu. She speaks softly and gently. ‘Baba is old, baba is feeble. Wear more clothes when the weather is cold, drink more water when the weather is hot.’ She’s such a sweet little fluffy jacket.” ³

“……”

Suddenly, the entire dining table became quiet. Even Housekeeper Mu, who had been standing by, found something to do and snuck back into the kitchen.

Those ‘illegitimate daughters’ of Su Gan were regarded as an open ‘secret’ of the Su family.

If one of his illegitimate daughters was already in university, wouldn’t that mean she was born before Su Zimo’s mother died?

“Su Gan, do you really dare to talk about your external romantic affairs at a family dinner.” Su Duan inexplicably gave Su Gan a thumbs up. “In terms of cheating on your wife, you’re really my elder brother.”

“What are you talking about? You’re the cuckold!” Su Gan glared back. “If I dared cheat on my wife, she would’ve crawled out of hell and killed me!”

“You…”

Su Gan’s ruthless remark ended another topic at the family dinner.

In fact, this was one of the reasons why Su Zimo didn’t understand his father. He always readily revealed he had several daughters, and always said he would introduce them to Su Zimo. He was even too magnanimous about the matter. Every time he spoke of it in detail, it made others feel that he never mourned his wife or felt sorry for his son who she had left behind, so everything was very strange.

It was called a family dinner, but the Su family’s dinner may be the most silent family dinner in existence. During that period, everyone took care of themselves and ate the food in front of them, not saying a word. There were even lawyers who ran in and recorded a video every few minutes.

It didn’t feel like a family dinner.

It wasn’t until everyone had finished their meals and risen from the table one after the other that Su Kun smiled and said to Su Zimo, “Zimo, Zixiang will finish his studies abroad soon. Several of his papers have been published in magazines, so he plans to help the family business when he comes back. When the time comes, Zimo, you have to look after your second and third uncle and help open doors for your little brother.

“Zixiang is graduating? Isn’t he a junior? Why don’t I know about this?” Su Duan widened his eyes, and the rice wine in his hand dripped onto his belly.

“I called him earlier and wanted to ask him if he was lacking anything, so he told me then.” Su Kun gave Su Duan a look, then turned to Su Zimo. “Zimo, this should be a trivial matter? After all, you and Zixiang grew up playing together. Although Zixiang went to university and you became the Su family head directly, there should still be affection remaining from childhood.

“I’m sorry Second Uncle, Third Uncle, my brother is managing the company’s affairs this year, but I can ask to help.” The smile on Su Zimo’s face remained unchanged, as if he hadn’t been affected at all.

“Then I’ll trouble Master Su.” Su Kun said and turned to leave with Su Duan. He even pretended to speak softly using a voice that everyone could hear, “Er-ge, if you didn’t know any better, you may think that Su Hewen was from the Su family while Su Zixiang was an outsider.”

“Shut up!” Su Duan didn’t agree with Su Kun this time, but stared at him fiercely. “If you don’t speak, you won’t be treated like an idiot. You don’t have to worry about Su Zixiang’s affairs in the future!”

“I really don’t know how that pig fathered a son like Zixiang.” Seeing Su Duan leaving by himself, Su Kun couldn’t help but grumble.

Although it was an unusual family dinner, the strange peace was within Su Zimo’s expectations. After all, it was only the first family dinner of the year. The Su family’s changes were still circulating in the media and other aristocratic families. Under that watch, even if someone wanted to try something, they wouldn’t choose to do it at this time.

But the ring on Su Kun’s finger made Su Zimo vigilant.

Before, he felt that the nightmare world was the nightmare world and the real world was the real world. But after seeing the ring, Su Zimo realized that the intersections between reality and the nightmare world was actually much more frequent than he had thought.

After finishing the day’s work and returning to the study on the second floor, Su Zimo walked to the desk, turned on the new desktop computer, and then entered the words ‘Nightmare World’ into the familiar search engine interface.

A few seconds later, a lot of different content appeared, most of which was useless to Su Zimo. After browsing a few pages, however, Su Zimo found a handful of posts by people who claimed to be ‘Nightmare World Trainers’ in some forums.

Most of those posts introduced the existence of the nightmare world and the things trainers needed to do, but those things they mentioned were extremely basic. It was like the posts were from newcomers who had just entered the nightmare world.

There weren’t many replies to those kinds of posts. Most people thought the ‘Nightmare World’ was the poster’s imagination. Some even thought the post content was the outline for an unpublished novel, and the original posters had disappeared. They didn’t make many waves.

Su Zimo was browsing the internet for a long time without much gain. He felt that the information on the surface was close to nothing. There must be a lot of secret information and prop exchanges, but he couldn’treach any right now.

For example, the Dawn Organization he heard of before seemed to have their own internal communication platform.

Turning his head and glancing at the night outside of the window, Su Zimo browsed for a while longer, trying to understand more quickly about the events of the past four years.

When Su Zimo got up from the desk, the 48 hour cooldown to enter the nightmare world had passed. He turned off the light in his bedroom, opened the door behind him, and retreated into An Yu Yi Yu.

Because the shop was closed, the inside of An Yu Yi Yu was very quiet. Both Peng Peng and Ghost Umbrella had returned to their own bodies, falling into a state of dormancy.

In the words of Ghost Umbrella, even though he was better than Peng Peng, if they continued to show themselves in An Yu Yi Yu, it felt as if they were moving under ten times the force of gravity. They would occasionally have to change back and rest for a while.

That’s why Su Zimo decided to close the shop occasionally.

However, Su Zimo was also considering changing the closing and opening times of the store, because he always felt that An Yu Yi Yu was more suitable for opening at night rather than the day.

Thinking about that, Su Zimo picked up the backpack from behind the counter, made sure that the metal pen, chocolates, and other snacks were in place, then took two bottles of Ghost Umbrella’s special fruit tea, and was ready to go to the next nightmare world to restock.

But after thinking about it, Su ZImo went back and stuffed the long-handled black umbrella into the backpack. He wasn’t afraid of the nightmare world, but he was a little worried about having to use force to pass through. In the next nightmare world, the intensity of the malicious spirits would probably be more terrifying than last time.

Although he didn’t know what special abilities Ghost Umbrella had other than speaking nonsense and making tea, Su Zimo felt that it would always be useful to bring him.

Looking back at the shelves that instilled a sense of emptiness in people because of their lack of products, Su Zimo cheered himself on. He didn’t hesitate any longer. He opened the side door of the shop and walked through.

*

[Tonight, you’ll come to my house to play at the ghost story assembly, right?]

……

[When will you come, I’ve been waiting a long time for you.]

*

When Su Zimo opened his eyes, he found himself standing in the bathroom of a strange apartment. In front of him was a half-length vanity mirror. The reflection in the mirror was too pale under the cold white light.

He blinked, and seemed to see something pass by in the mirror in his peripheral vision, but when he turned to look around, he found that the entire restroom was empty. There was nothing.

The door was ajar and unlocked, so that meant Su Zimo could leave the restroom where he was waiting by himself as long as he reached out and pushed.

But after leaving this time, what would his identity be?

Su Zimo didn’t think too long. There didn’t seem to be any option other than leaving.

“Creak-“

The doors in the nightmare world always seemed to be stuck. It was apparent that no one had touched them for a long time, so every time they opened, they would make an unpleasant creak.

After exiting the restroom, Su Zimo found that he was indeed in a seemingly ordinary apartment with a living room, balcony, and several closed doors.

The sky was still night, and three strangers were already standing in the living room with the lights on.

They stood against the wall and were staring at each other unblinkingly. When they saw Su Zimo exit the restroom, their bodies were tense. They were relieved when they saw Su Zimo’s appearance clearly.

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“There are only four trainers total. This time our task should be easy.”

Su Zimo observed the three people in room. He found that the trainers in this nightmare world were very young, and they carried a kind of scholarly spirit as if they’d never truly integrated with society.

“Everyone try not to speak. Keep quiet.” A girl with delicate makeup pointed in the direction of the balcony, then shushed Su Zimo and the others.

Su Zimo looked subconsciously toward the balcony. He found that there were two figures sitting motionless with their backs to them.

Footnotes

<ol>Chaos and smoke is an idiom meaning something is really bad, messy, and unhealthy usually in regards to a social setting. At sixes and sevens is another idiom that also means confused and messy but in a more general sense. Extend branches and scatter leaves: to have kids. Not sure if this refers to his wife not wanting more kids, or just that he can’t go around being a playboy. Sweet little fluffy jacket is a metaphor describing a daughter who has a close and caring relationship toward her parents. She’s very filial.</ol>