The clock hands ticked slowly. It took a long time for Grandmother to fall asleep, and it would be a while before she woke up again.
Nan Yue pieced together the current clues.
Amin was the mother's name, and it was also the granddaughter's name.
Grandmother had raised Amin alone back then and doted on her.
Later, Amin died from complications during childbirth. Because she missed her daughter so much, Grandmother gave her granddaughter the same name as the mother.
Nan Yue had not found a marriage certificate for the mother. Calculating the granddaughter's approximate age and the mother's age on the death certificate, the mother must have had the child when she was seventeen or eighteen.
Recalling the almost harsh rules Grandmother set for her granddaughter, especially the one about not having too much contact with the opposite sex, Nan Yue guessed that the mother, Amin, must have been deceived by a boy back then. She became pregnant unexpectedly, and the man never appeared, even up until her death.
Nan Yue let out a long breath. Now that the background of the story was clear, the next step was the key to breaking the situation.
What exactly was Grandmother's illness?
In any case, after a day of contact, Grandmother's physical health seemed fine, aside from being a bit eerie.
But the teachers had also said that the projects in the Scavenger Project were always accompanied by the eerie and the horrific. That was the baseline.
It was like reading a story where the same content could be written as a comedy or a horror.
Therefore, she could not let herself be biased or distracted by Grandmother's strangeness.
Nan Yue remembered... there seemed to be a telephone in Grandmother's room.
No matter what Grandmother's illness was, if she called the hospital, they would come to pick her up.
The difficulty now was how to get into Grandmother's room to make the call.
Nan Yue sat on the sofa, lost in thought. She could only make the call if she managed to lure Grandmother away.
Furthermore, she could not bet her escape on this single method. Her gaze shifted to the television.
She had taken mechanics classes, but breaking something did not require much technical skill.
Nan Yue got a glass of water and poured it into the television.
One glass was not enough, so she poured two.
Estimating it was about right, she figured that since Grandmother watched television every day, someone would have to come and fix it if it broke.
Nan Yue sat back on the sofa with satisfaction, planning her Plan B.
...Wait... Nan Yue blinked, somewhat in disbelief. The television... seemed to have deformed.
The originally square television had collapsed on the left side, and the spot where she poured the water looked as if it had been crumpled, shrinking inward.
It now looked like an irregular quadrilateral.
Although Nan Yue had never seen a real television, she still had the common sense she had learned over the years.
'What kind of brand made televisions with such poor quality...'
Before Nan Yue could get up to take a closer look, a click sounded as the bedroom door opened.
Grandmother stood stiffly at the door, looking at Nan Yue with an uncomfortable smile on her face.
Nan Yue's heart skipped a beat. She forced a smile. "Grandmother, are you well rested?"
Grandmother's cloudy eyes rolled. "Yes, yes. Grandmother dreamed of your mother."
"Soon, we will be able to see her."
Nan Yue frowned. These words were ominous. The mother, Amin, was already dead. Even if Grandmother was old, she should not say such things.
It sounded as if she was also about to die soon.
The alarm bells in Nan Yue's heart began to ring softly. She felt that the time left for her was likely running out.
"Grandmother, what are we having for dinner?"
Nan Yue asked as normally as possible. "I don't want porridge anymore. How about I go out to buy groceries?"
The smile on Grandmother's face widened, and she stared at Nan Yue without blinking.
"The food has already been bought."
Nan Yue found it hard to believe. Her gaze unconsciously drifted toward the kitchen, but she suddenly froze.
On the stove where there had been nothing before, several plated dishes were now sitting there.
When were they delivered?
No one had come in at all!
Nan Yue gritted her teeth and walked toward the kitchen.
Grandmother did not stop her, merely smiling as her gaze followed Nan Yue's movements.
Nan Yue's heart was in her throat as she passed Grandmother. She was worried Grandmother might suddenly pounce on her, because the expression on the old woman's face looked even more bizarre than yesterday. She did not look like she was watching her granddaughter, but rather like she was looking at prey.
Fortunately, the scene she imagined did not happen, but she wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt that something about Grandmother was different.
Nan Yue did not dare to linger in front of Grandmother for too long. When she reached the kitchen, the extra items were exactly what she had mentioned wanting to eat yesterday.
A fish, a roast duck, and a bowl of vegetable and tofu soup.
Nan Yue's body felt stiff. Although she knew the background of the story now, this house was too strange, unlike anything taught in the textbooks.
It wasn't that she couldn't order takeout if she didn't want to cook, but someone had to deliver the food. She had never heard of it appearing out of thin air.
"Amin, why are you dazed? It's time to eat."
Grandmother's voice came from behind her. Nan Yue did not wait any longer. She picked up the bowls and walked toward the dining room.
The food was still steaming, but Nan Yue always felt something was off.
Grandmother started eating first, her eyes crinkling with a smile.
"Delicious, delicious! Amin, why aren't you eating? Isn't this what you wanted to eat?"
Nan Yue could only pick up her chopsticks and put a piece of duck meat into her mouth.
It tasted terrible.
That was Nan Yue's evaluation, and she was someone who had eaten the academy's standardized meals for over twenty years.
She had never eaten any delicacies, but the thing in her mouth could truly be described as disgusting.
It had no flavor at all, and it was even as tough as eating paper.
It lacked all the color, aroma, and taste that food should have. Instead of a pleasant scent, Nan Yue only caught a faint, foul stench.
Was this food already spoiled...
Nan Yue was momentarily unsure whether she should continue eating.
"What's wrong? Is it not to your taste?"
Nan Yue's hesitation caught Grandmother's attention. When Grandmother's eyes turned toward her, Nan Yue finally realized what felt wrong. It was Grandmother's face.
Overnight, many dark age spots seemed to have appeared on Grandmother's face.
Nan Yue knew that elderly people would inevitably develop spots. Although she had never seen a real elderly person, she knew that age spots were a normal physiological phenomenon.
However, no matter how normal it was, they wouldn't all grow out overnight.
Yesterday, Grandmother's face was just a bit sallow with scattered spots, but today it looked as if it had darkened significantly. A third of her face was covered in black spots, making her look much more terrifying.
"No... it's quite delicious."
"Grandmother, who delivered this food?"
Unable to understand the change in Grandmother for the moment, Nan Yue tried to find a breakthrough by starting a conversation.
"Grandmother can get you whatever Amin wants. Just tell Grandmother whatever else you want to eat or play with."
Grandmother acted as if she had not heard Nan Yue's words and spoke to herself.
Nan Yue felt something was wrong. This home was clearly not very wealthy, and Grandmother's tone did not sound like she was coaxing a child. How did she have the confidence to say such things?
Nan Yue watched Grandmother eating the food in large mouthfuls, and a suspicion suddenly surfaced in her mind.
She leaned forward to place a piece of food in Grandmother's bowl. As she drew closer to Grandmother, she discovered that the foul stench was not coming from the food.
It was coming from Grandmother's body.
Rate on N.U.
