With one stomp, the two withered skeletal hands were crushed to pieces, but immediately more skeletal hands rushed up and grabbed Yin Xiu's feet.
It unearthed a beautiful bunch of flowers from the soil. "I'll trade with you; I'll give you this one, which is even better and more beautiful."
Yin Xiu tugged at his leg, "No."
"This one! This one is so beautiful!" Another bunch of flowers was dug out of the soil. The flowers didn't even seem like flowers that should exist in this world. They were colorful and shimmering, exceptionally beautiful and captivating.
Yin Xiu's gaze fell on the flowers, pausing slightly, as if he were being pulled by the flowers and couldn't look away.
The voice from beneath the earth grew mesmerizing and deep, slowly enticing:
"Look, the yellow flowers represent family. If you have them, you will have a happy family. You won't have to grow up in an orphanage. You will have a lovely little sister to accompany you, and parents who treat you very well. Your life will become rich, instead of having nothing."
"Blue flowers are friends. You will no longer be avoided by everyone, you will no longer lose attention, and you will have many, many people accompanying you. You will stay by your side without giving anything in return."
"Red flowers represent lovers. The territories you have never explored are new and beautiful to you. You will be deeply loved, valued, and accompanied for a long time, facing death together instead of being alone."
"Purple flowers represent money. You may not care about them that much, but you can't live without them."
"Do you want it? Do you want it? With this bouquet of flowers, you will have a complete life. The emotions you lack, your blurred memories, your past that is like a cold wind, and your pain will all be soothed by this bouquet of flowers."
"All I need is that tiny, pitiful flower in your hand in exchange."
The voice from beneath the earth murmured its story again and again, and the colorful flower in the eyes twisted and changed constantly, taking on various shapes.
"Look at you, how pitiful you are, you have nothing, and your only friend is about to die. You must want more than poverty, right? Come and trade, just trade with me."
The hand quietly reached out to Yin Xiu and slowly touched the small, bright red flower between his fingers.
Just as his withered hand was about to touch it, Yin Xiu slightly withdrew his hand, protecting the flower in his palm.
His dazed gaze cleared for a moment, but then blurred again, and he managed to utter a few indistinct words, "I won't give them to you..."
"The first...gift I ever received..."
"A gift from the monster..."
"I'll be unhappy if I don't have it..."
He muttered more and more, his teeth clenched, his brows furrowed. Suddenly, he turned his head away from the bouquet of flowers and shouted angrily, "What lousy flowers! The colors are so mixed, they're hideous! I don't want them!"
The skeleton hands trembled; for the first time, someone had broken free from the temptation.
"Don't you want it? Why don't you want it? These are things you don't have. Why don't you want them?"
She slowly reached out, trying to offer the colorful flowers to Yin Xiu again, but he swept them away with his eyes closed, saying, "I'm not interested, take them away."
The voice from underground shrieked, "Impossible! There's no way anyone wouldn't want it! Humans are greedy; they only want more and more, endlessly."
Why don't you want it! Why don't you want it!
"I know, you're not human, you're a monster, a monster among humans, cold-blooded and heartless, that's why you have nothing!"
Yin Xiu frowned and stomped on the spot where the sound came from. "Shut up!"
As he moved, more hands emerged from the ground and grabbed his feet, their voices echoing and overlapping, "Give me...give me something, give me...anything, give me...I want..."
Yin Xiu let out a heavy sigh, not wanting to get entangled with these hands any longer. He looked up at the end of the cemetery, where there was a door. Opening that door would lead to the next section of the corridor, at least freeing him from these hands.
He ignored the sounds coming from the ground and turned to walk step by step toward the door.
If he moves even slightly, more hands will spring out of the soil to grab him; if he shakes off some, even more will emerge.
They tried to grab Yin Xiu's ankles, and when they couldn't, they began to surge out and cling to his legs, hug his waist, and pull on his arms, trying little by little to crush him with their weight.
Yin Xiu, pulling on the group of clinging skeleton hands, forced himself to walk heavily along the path in the cemetery to the door at the end.
He took a deep breath, placed his hand on the doorknob, and prepared to leave.
Suddenly, a new voice came from behind, sounding young and clear.
"Brother...why are you leaving? Aren't you going to stay and keep Xiaoxiao company? Weren't you looking for Xiaoxiao?"
Yin Xiu paused, his pupils trembling slightly.
In that moment of hesitation, the skeletons on his body suddenly surged up, covering his eyes, and a heavy force pressed down, trying to drag Yin Xiu back.
Yin Xiu was surrounded by darkness and could only fumble around for the doorknob, trying to open the door or grab onto something.
In the darkness, his hand waved wildly in the air, but he couldn't touch the door. It seemed that in an instant, the door became incredibly far away.
He groped for the door with one hand and tried to remove the skeletal hand covering his eyes with the other. In his blurry vision, a glimmer of light seemed to appear before him.
The next second, someone grabbed his outstretched hand. The touch was icy cold, devoid of any warmth, and the sensation transmitted from his palm made Yin Xiu shudder.
The man grabbed him and pulled him sharply towards him, instantly throwing him into someone's arms, which were equally cold.
A familiar voice sounded from above, as enigmatic and amused as ever, "Your brother has me now, he won't stay to keep you company."
Yin Xiu felt the weight pressing down on him turn into powder in an instant, and begin to collapse and shatter. Accompanied by sharp cries from beneath the earth, all the skeletons' hands tried to crawl back into the ground, but they all vanished into thin air before they could burrow back in.
After the loud screams subsided, the cemetery returned to silence.
There were no flowers, no skulls, no sound, only desolation.
Yin Xiu opened his eyes and found a row of small words on the door panel next to him: The Graveyard of the Greedy.
Before he could investigate further, Li Mo, who was holding him, tightened his arms around him, rested his head on Yin Xiu's shoulder, and whispered, "You didn't get anything from them, did you?"
"Mm," Yin Xiu responded.
"That's good." Li Mo let go of him, took out the rule sheet she had just received from her pocket, and smiled, "I'm back after I finished eating. I brought you a gift."
Yin Xiu stared silently at the rule sheet in Li Mo's hand, "...Hmm."
Then he slowly closed his eyes and sighed, "I feel like I was injured in that spot just now."
Li Mo paused. "Where?"
"Mentally." Yin Xiu slowy opened his eyes, reached out and took the rule sheet that Li Mo had given him, "But now it's all right again."