Cooking in the Monster Sanctuary - Chapter 10

“It’s really pitiful.

Qin Huai Shu has always been a well-behaved child who follows the rules from childhood to adulthood. He has never seen such a miserable situation. He immediately pressed the skip button as he realized that this song was causing psychological trauma to the woman.

The noisy and bustling song suddenly fell silent, replaced by a melodious and slow-paced tune. The middle-aged musician began to sing softly, “The most beautiful is the sunset glow, warm and composed…”

A breeze flowed in through the open window of the studio, brushing against the woman’s snow-white long beard and long eyebrows. Each precise syllable of the song seemed to mock without any restraint, floating in the night breeze along with her beard.

The woman’s eyes were lifeless, and she had completely given up thinking.

Lin Yu held her wrist with one hand and pulled the painting frame in the opposite direction with the other. Upon hearing this song, she turned to Qin Huai Shu indignantly and said, “This is too much! She’s already in this state, and you play such a song!”

The woman was shocked, staring at her with wide eyes.

“Clearly, you’re the one to blame! Can’t you have a little self-awareness? She won’t believe your righteous act now!”

Unexpectedly, Qin Huai Shu politely turned off the music and apologized with a wince, “I’m sorry, I didn’t expect to play this song.”

It’s actually a case of “willing to fight, willing to suffer,” huh! This long-tailed man is too easy to push around!

Wait a minute.

Long-tailed man?

The woman in the painting trembled all over, her face pale. “Ah, why does he have a tail? Those strange ears are terrifying!”

Qin Huai Shu’s eyes darkened slightly, and he remained silent, and his long black eyelashes casting a shadow on his lower eyelids.

While the existence of supernatural beings was widely accepted by society, humans still instinctively felt fear and rejection when they saw them. He had been trying to integrate into human society, but not only were humans afraid of him, even other supernatural beings were afraid of him.

“What are you saying?” Lin Yu tapped the woman’s head firmly, using a protective tone, “My friend is so cute, all furry and a treasure to the world, you can’t even touch him.”

Caught off guard by the unexpected praise, Qin Huai Shu’s ears turned bright red. He hesitated with his mouth half open for a while but couldn’t utter a single word.

“Next, let’s have a good conversation, shall we?” She completely gave up on trying to pull the woman’s hand back, taking a step back with a friendly demeanor. “What is the reason for your existence? Have there been any outsiders arriving here in the past few days?”

“Why should I tell you…”

The woman bit her lip and stopped abruptly as a knife suddenly appeared at her neck. The young girl in front of her continued to smile gently. “I don’t want this conversation to turn into torture. Although the painting can be restored after being destroyed, none of us want to see the result if you, as the original, were to die.”

The woman depicted in the painting appeared confused.

Is this something a normal person does? What kind of devil did she encounter today? As a campus supernatural enthusiast, would she succumb to the devil?

“No, no, I’ll tell you everything!”

The woman raised her hands in surrender and spoke rapidly, “I was originally just a vague thoughtwave signal, but a week ago, I suddenly became corporeal.

Recently, there have indeed been people coming here at this time, but they never stared at me for more than ten seconds, so I couldn’t manifest.”

Qin Huai Shu looked puzzled. “Psychic waves signal?”

“It’s like brainwaves. Human fantasies and imaginations about the same unknown creature gather together. When their frequency reaches a certain strength, they can be seen by humans. But generally, these waves don’t have physical forms.”

Lin Yu continued to ask with a smile, “Have you seen any strange people? How did you suddenly become corporeal?”

“I really don’t know! I can’t see what’s happening outside the painting, I can only sense the presence of humans. And one day when I emerged to catch a breath, I inexplicably found that I could interact with other things.” The woman shrank back and said, “I have my own grievances, please spare me.”

She only realized afterward that she was the one with the script for the antagonist. What’s going on with these lines?

“You need to have courage in life,” Lin Yu retracted her dagger, and sighed, “Someone like you, in a wartime drama, would defect in less than half an episode. How can you surrender to the enemy so quickly?”

It’s all because of your oppression! This is too much! She’ll definitely seek revenge once she’s free.

Just as the woman in the painting was angrily grinding her teeth, the seemingly unbreakable and plaster-like restraint on her suddenly disappeared. She felt relief and quickly pulled back her almost numb arm.

Then, she dashed back into the original painting like a gust of wind.

“She…she just ran away?”

“Yeah,” Lin Yu’s thoughts were in chaos, but there were faint clues breaking through the darkness in her mind. 

She furrowed her brows slightly, “So, it’s possible that the culprit possesses the ability to materialize thoughtwave signals. The seven campus supernatural phenomena are created by human imagination and then brought into reality by their power. The ‘people who came here at the same time’ she mentioned are probably the missing individuals. They experienced the same exploration as us.”

“Materialize thoughtwave signals…” Qin Huai Shu repeated those three words in a murmur. “This is truly unimaginable! Such an ability could almost distort the entire reality.”

“So we need to bring that guy back to the facility as soon as possible,” she chuckled softly, “If the killer wanted to kill them, there are many easier and quicker ways to do it. But they chose the ‘exploration of the seven wonders’ method, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. That’s something I find quite interesting.”

“Is that person trying to torture them?”

Qin Huai Shu’s fox ears finally transformed into human ears, and he choked when his gaze met Lin Yu’s, his eyes drifting to the corner of the room.

“If it’s just torture, this method is too roundabout. Let’s keep moving forward. After we finish exploring, we should be able to find that person,” Lin Yu looked regretfully at the painting, “It turns out they are all entities formed by brainwave signals, not exactly creatures. I don’t know how long they can maintain this state. That hand is destined not to be sent to the containment facility.”

*

The fourth supernatural phenomenon was the “Red Cloak Man.”

After school, students would encounter a man in a red cloak with a smiling mask on the campus path. When he saw a student, he would ask, “Do you like red, white, or blue?”

If you answered red, you would die in a pool of blood; if you answered white, all your blood would be drained; and if you answered blue, you would drown in water. No matter which answer you gave, the victims had no way to escape. All because under the cloak was a deeply antisocial killer.

“I heard this story a long time ago,” Lin Yu said after eating a piece of candy, “It’s quite a famous supernatural phenomenon, right? I heard it was based on a child abductor serial killer.”

Qin Huai Shu was tense and fearful all over, and he responded softly, “Yes.”

The path where this strange man appeared was remote and surrounded by lush bamboo forests.

The moonlight was cool as water, and even its radiance was filled with a cold chill. The long bamboo leaves cast faint and indistinct shadows in the moonlight, like countless sharp blades spread underfoot, or the sharp teeth of a fierce beast that could bite through them with just a little force.

He hesitated for a moment and then spoke softly, “Thank you for speaking up for me earlier.”

“There’s nothing to thank for.”

Lin Yu clasped her hands behind her back and looked up at the crescent moon amid the dappled tree shadows. She understood that the relationship between humans and extraterrestrials was tense, and Qin Huai Shu was the kind with strong self-esteem.

Hearing words like that would surely hurt him. After a brief pause, she added, “And fox tails and ears are really cute, all soft and furry. Who wouldn’t like them—hey, why are you covering your face?”

Qin Huai Shu’s tail shook slightly, and he peeked at her through the tiny gap between his fingers. His voice was soft like a clear spring, “I’m, I’m feeling a bit warm.”

Just as he finished speaking, footsteps could be heard not far away.

A glaring red color lit up the path, and a tall, slender man with a red cloak and a smiling mask approached slowly. His face, hidden behind the pure white mask, bore a sinister smile, and his pitch-black eyes resembled dark abysses, sending shivers down one’s spine.

He held a knife and approached in a contorted posture, his voice rougher than sandpaper, “Do you like red, white, or blu—”

Before the Cloak Man could finish his sentence, he suddenly saw a black shadow rushing towards him. After an unbearable pain shot through his chin, his entire body was thrown backward into the air.

His consciousness blurred due to the unexpected punch, and he groaned in pain. Before he could struggle to sit up, he was forcefully pinned to the ground.

Lin Yu raised her right leg and stepped on his stomach, snatching the strange man’s dagger and pressing it against his neck. She imitated his eerie tone and spoke softly, “What about you? Do you like red, white, or blue?”