Courtyard House: My Long and Hard Body Makes Me Play with All the Women in the Courtyard

Xiaoman walked up to him, gently took down the guitar, and held it in her arms.

“It’s fixed,” she said softly, her fingertips brushing across the instrument, revealing the five invisible strings, which vibrated slightly. “Now, it can play any word you want to say.”

Su Ting, panting, looked up at her: "Where...are we going next?"

Xiaoman looked towards the edge of the city, where the first true rays of dawn were piercing through the clouds.

“Go find other ‘listeners’,” she said. “Dad said that a voice doesn’t stay hidden in one place. Three hundred years ago, he hid fragments of the sound core inside twelve children—they survived, hid, and lived in silence for their entire lives.”

Chapter 1408 The Swordsman Playing the Qin

She turned to look at him, her eyes sparkling:

“You are the first ‘responder.’ But there shouldn’t be only one swordsman who can play the piano in the world.”

Su Ting was silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled.

He reached out, took the guitar, and lightly ran his fingers across the strings—

"Ding."

A clear, bright sound, like a dewdrop falling on a leaf.

"Then what are we waiting for?" He looked up, his gaze sharp as a knife. "Tell me the next name."

“Lin Wanqiu.” Xiaoman’s voice was as soft as the wind brushing against the strings of a harp. “She lives in the No. 7 lighthouse in the old harbor and hasn’t left the tower in twenty years. Some say she’s crazy, some say she’s not even human… She is the second ‘Listener’.”

"A lighthouse?" The gray-haired boy spat, scratching his messy hair. "Damn, that place is full of electromagnetic turbulence. Ten years ago, the 'Silent Storm' destroyed the entire dock. Now that sea sings at night—but who dares to listen? Anyone who does will lose their senses and be gone the next day."

Duoduo looked down and flipped through the remaining data stream on her wristwatch, her brows furrowing deeper and deeper: "Lighthouse No. 7... something's not right. In my database, that location was deregistered ten years ago. It doesn't exist on the map, satellites can't scan it, and even sound wave detection distorts it into gibberish. But... I just received a low-frequency signal, like it came from the seabed, and the encoding format... matches the third layer of the 'Prokaryotic Map'."

Su Ting stroked the newly formed string and asked in a low voice, "Does she know we're going?"

“I don’t know.” Xiaoman shook her head. “But she’s been waiting. Every night at midnight, the light on top of the lighthouse flashes three times—not electronically, but manually. And the rhythm of the flashing… is the prelude to that lullaby.”

Su Ting was startled.

“She’s responding too,” he murmured.

“Of course.” Xiaoman looked at him, her eyes deep. “The voice is alive, and the memories are connected. You think you’re the first person to wake up? No, you’re just the first person to be ‘heard’.”

The old man coughed twice and shakily pulled a yellowed piece of paper from his pocket, its edges charred black, as if it had been snatched from a fire: "This is... the 'List of Listeners' written by your father back then. Only I can read it—because I am the zeroth generation 'Name Keeper'."

He slowly unfolded the paper with his withered fingers, revealing a dark red ink stain that snaked across the surface like blood.

Lin Wanqiu: Sound Core as a Substance; The Sound of Lamplight; Avoiding the "Sound of Rust".

"The sound of rust?" Su Ting frowned.

The old man's eyes narrowed: "Don't touch the old anchor chains in the harbor, and don't listen to the sound of waves crashing against the wreckage. That's not a natural sound; it's a variant of the 'scavenger whistle,' specifically designed to lure 'sound core hosts.' The reason Lin Wanqiu didn't leave the tower was because she was afraid of hearing it—once it resonated, the sound core within her would turn against her."

The gray child whistled: "Wow, this woman lives more cautiously than I do."

“She’s not afraid of death,” Xiaoman said softly. “She’s afraid of losing control. It’s said that when she first spoke, all the metal on the entire dock turned to dust—even the sunken ships on the seabed crumbled into sand. That’s why the system has been hunting her down for twenty years.”

Su Ting remained silent for a moment, then looked up at the distant horizon.

A sliver of sunlight broke through the clouds, casting its glow upon the rusted steel frame and dilapidated crane, resembling the remains of a forgotten behemoth.

“We have to go,” he said.

"But how do we get there?" Duoduo pointed to her wristwatch. "There's no transportation, and we only have 37% energy left. And—look at this."

With a flick of her wrist, she projected a distorted thermal image: three red dots were slowly moving along the road from the city to the old harbor.

Chapter 1409 Then Don't Go on the Road

“The Scavenger Patrol, model ‘Dumbblade-IX,’ equipped with a sound pressure suppressor that can freeze all vibration sources within a 50-meter radius.” She gritted her teeth. “They know we’re going there.”

“Then let’s not walk.” The gray-haired boy grinned, patting the drum on his back. “I still have some old tricks up my sleeve—an underground drainage system that connects to an abandoned old subway line, leading all the way to Exit B3 of the dock. But…”

He paused, his smile fading slightly: "Three hundred 'silent coffins' were buried on that road ten years ago."

"A silent coffin?" Su Ting asked.

“People identified by the system as ‘high-risk sound sources’,” Xiaoman’s voice lowered, “They didn’t die. They were sealed in special containers and buried underground, never to hear the outside world or make a sound… the silence of the living.”

Su Ting gripped the guitar tightly.

"We will walk over them."

“No.” He suddenly looked up, his eyes sharp as knives. “We need to wake them up.”

Duo Duo's eyes widened: "Are you crazy? Awakening the Silent Coffin is like detonating a sonic nuclear landmine! The entire underground passage will collapse!"

"Then let it collapse." Su Ting sneered. "I'm no longer that deserter who only knows how to hide. They've sealed off sound, sealed off memories, sealed off the breath of the living... Now, it's our turn to tear open their coffin lids."

Xiaoman looked at him and suddenly smiled.

She raised her hand and gently plucked a string on the guitar—

"Om."

A soft tremor, not heard, but felt in the heart.

In the distance, the metal cover of the underground pipe trembled slightly.

The gray-haired boy laughed, grabbed the drumsticks, and slung them over his shoulder: "Damn, that's more like it! Swordsmen play instruments, coffins sing, and my drumbeats are just the funeral bells! Let's go!"

The wind suddenly stopped as the four stepped into the abandoned subway entrance.

Deep inside the passage, it was pitch black, with only a few faint green warning lights occasionally flashing on the walls, reading:

[Silence is prohibited]

[Mute protocol in effect]

[Vibration detected, cleaning process will be initiated]

"Are these broken lights still working?" The gray child kicked one of them, and the light flickered twice before going out.

“The old system’s little tricks,” Duoduo sneered. “They survive on residual sound energy. As long as we don’t make a sound, they’ll play dead.”

“But we insist on making a sound.” Su Ting stopped and gently placed his fingers on the strings.

"Do you want to play now?" Xiaoman squinted.

“No.” He shook his head. “I was just…testing my response.”

He closed his eyes and flicked his finger—

No sound.

But suddenly, a very low tremor came from the ground.

"Boom."

Like a heart beating underground.

Immediately after

"Boom, boom, boom..."

One sound after another came from all directions.

In a crack in the wall, a rusty steel bar trembled slightly; overhead, a broken cable swayed without wind; in the distance, a maintenance well sealed with cement had its cover slightly arched!

"My God..." Duoduo's voice trembled, "They...are responding to you?"

“It’s not a response to me.” Su Ting opened his eyes, his gaze intense. “It’s a response to ‘possibility.’ They’re still alive. They remember how they listened, how they thought, how… they wanted freedom.”

Xiaoman took a deep breath, suddenly raised her hand, and pressed her palm against the wall.

Her lips didn't move, but her vocal cords vibrated slowly—

A very thin, soft sound flowed out, like a mother's whisper comforting her baby.

In an instant, the walls of the entire passageway began to resonate!

Chunks of cement peeled away, revealing a dense array of rectangular, sealed metal coffins covered with sound-suppressing patterns. Each one was labeled with a number and a name.

Silent Coffin 107 · Zhang Yuanshan · Occupation: Teacher · Crime: Teaching students to sing

Silent Coffin 189 · Chen Xiaoyu · Occupation: Child · Crime: Excessive Laughter

Silent Coffin 223 · Grandma Lin · Occupation: Folk Artist · Crime: Playing Traditional Musical Instruments

"They...are all ordinary people," the gray child said hoarsely.

Chapter 1410 Ordinary People Are the Most Dangerous

“Ordinary people are the most dangerous,” Xiaoman said softly, “because they don’t need a system to teach them how to speak; they’re born with it.”

Su Ting walked step by step toward the first coffin, reached out, and touched the cold metal surface.

"Can I save them?"

“No,” Xiaoman shook her head. “But you can ask them if they want to wake up.”

Su Ting closed his eyes and gently pressed his forehead against the coffin.

He neither played the piano nor spoke.