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

Then--

"The moonlight climbs the wall, and my mother is singing..."

The voice was soft, like mist rising from a deep well, carrying the coldness and stillness of three hundred years. But as soon as the voice was uttered, the blue light beneath the earth trembled violently, as if a pebble had been thrown into the center of a lake.

Su Ting suddenly looked up, his bloodied hand pressing down on the strings: "This tune... is wrong! It's not the original melody!"

“It’s not ‘wrong’.” Duoduo stared at the scarlet rune, her pupils shrinking. “It’s… evolved.”

The blue light spread wildly along the crack, no longer a simple burst, but like vines, wrapping around the eighth chain, inch by inch, devouring the scarlet sealing power. The runes began to twist, emitting a piercing wail, as if some ancient being was being torn apart.

“What she’s singing… is an echo of memories,” Xiaoman murmured. “Not a replica, but a reconstruction.”

The gray-haired boy grinned, his face covered in blood, but he laughed maniacally: "Damn! This is the real 'breaking'! Not breaking the cage, it's—turning the cage into a concert venue for me!!!"

"boom!"

One of the chains finally broke, shattering into countless crimson specks of light that vanished with the wind.

The female voice continued:

"The candlelight flickers gently, and wings appear in my dreams..."

With each line sung, a figure rose from the ground. Not a blurry outline, but a clear face—a woman holding a child, a musician with a missing arm, a boy with a childlike face but a stubborn look in his eyes. They were no longer silent, no longer passively "heard," but actively raised their hands and followed the melody.

Xiaoman suddenly stood up, her ten fingers stained with blood, and grabbed the broken zither: "Everyone—follow her! This isn't her song, it's ours!"

"Ding-buzz!"

Su Ting was the first to respond; the piano music was no longer wild, but gentle like a stream, carrying the woman's voice slowly upward. Duo Duo's drumming became the gentle rocking of a cradle, and the gray child no longer pounded the ground, but gently patted his chest with his palm, as if responding to his heartbeat.

The child suddenly raised his little hand and whispered:

"Not afraid of the long night, not afraid of the wind at the window..."

The three voices converged, like three streams flowing into a river.

The blue light surged! The dark clouds in the sky were completely torn apart, and sunlight poured down like molten gold, merging with the light from the ground in mid-air. It was no longer a rainbow bridge, but a bridge of light—from the ground straight to the earth's core!

"As long as you're by my side..." The woman's voice trembled slightly, tinged with tears.

Xiaoman took a deep breath and loudly continued:

"The sky will brighten soon—!!!"

"Bright—!!!" Su Ting roared, and the strings of the zither snapped one by one, splattering blood everywhere!

"Bang—!!!" Duoduo plunged the iron core hard into the rock core, and the drumhead shattered!

"Bright—!!!" The gray child knelt down, his forehead hitting the ground hard with a final "thud"!

"Bright—!" The child stood on tiptoe and stretched his little hand toward the sky.

boom--! ! !

The eighth chain finally shattered inch by inch!

The crimson rune let out a final shriek, turning to ashes and scattering in the wind. The entire earth trembled violently, the cracks slowly closing, but the bridge of light shone ever brighter, as if the earth's core was awakening.

Chapter 1444 A Three-Hundred-Year Wait

In the light, the blurry figure at the head—Old Pei—slowly raised his severed finger and bowed deeply to the source of the voice.

One after another, all the figures bowed.

We salute her, salute the three-hundred-year wait, and salute this belated song.

Then they started to back away.

It didn't disappear; it simply made way.

The female voice gradually became clearer, slowly rising from the deepest depths.

“Dad…” she said softly, “I’m here.”

Xiaoman reached out, as if to grasp that beam of light: "I've been waiting for you for three hundred years."

Su Ting grinned, his mouth full of blood: "Your father just... nodded."

Duoduo wiped her face and laughed, cursing, "Damn, this is the first time in my life I've ever wanted to cry."

The gray-haired boy plopped down on the ground, panting heavily: "Hey... tell me, when she comes out, could you teach me the rock version of this song first?"

Suddenly, the child pointed to the end of the Bridge of Light, his eyes widening:

"Look! She...she's not alone!"

Everyone looked up.

Within that stream of light, besides that slender figure, there were countless tiny specks of light, like fireflies, surrounding her and drifting gently.

"This is..." Xiaoman's breath hitched.

A gentle female voice rang out:

"These are... the children who didn't make it to today."

"They said they wanted to see the sunshine."

Su Ting stood up abruptly, his voice trembling: "Then you...you're not the first...you're the last?"

A woman's voice chuckled softly, tinged with tears:

"I am the forgotten gatekeeper."

"Now—the door is open."

The Bridge of Light trembled, and the figure rose higher and higher, becoming brighter and brighter. She was no longer a blurry, lingering soul, but a living girl, about sixteen or seventeen years old, wearing an old dress from a hundred years ago, with a long-extinct Flower of Sound pinned in her hair.

She appeared before everyone, looked down at her hands, and gently opened them.

In the palm of my hand lies a small ocarina.

She looked up at Xiaoman, tears welling in her eyes:

"Can you play this?"

Xiaoman's fingers trembled slightly.

The ocarina lay quietly in the girl's palm, its surface greyish-white, engraved with fine spiral patterns, like a wisp of frozen wind. It was inconspicuous, yet it seemed to carry the breath of the entire earth.

"Can you play this?" the girl asked again, her voice very soft, as if afraid of disturbing something.

Xiaoman didn't speak, but slowly stretched out her hand. Just as her fingertips were about to touch, she suddenly stopped.

"Wait." Su Ting suddenly stepped forward, blocking Xiao Man's path, staring intently at the ocarina. "That thing... isn't a relic."

His voice tightened: "That's a 'key.' A real key."

Duo Duo frowned: "What do you mean? Didn't they break eight chains and open the door?"

“It opened a seal.” Su Ting gritted his teeth, his eyes bloodshot. “But what’s behind that door…? Do you really think those children just came to ‘see the sunlight’?”

The air suddenly solidified.

The gray-haired boy suddenly jumped up from the ground and kicked Su Ting in the back: "Are you fucking crazy? She's crying like this and you're still doing this?"

“I’m not questioning her!” Su Ting staggered a step but didn’t turn around. “I’m questioning the ‘gate’! Three hundred years ago, why did the first gatekeeper seal the sound into the earth’s core? Why did they have to use eight blood chains to lock it up? Just to hide a song?”

No one answered.

Only the girl floated quietly in the light, the ocarina in her palm gleaming softly, like a beating heart.

Xiaoman finally spoke, her voice so low it was almost inaudible: "You're right... the door opened, but no one knows what happened behind it."

Chapter 1445 The Moment of Contact

She slowly walked around Su Ting and reached out her hand again.

This time, her fingertips gently touched the ocarina.

"Om-"

A very soft tremolo emanated from the ocarina, even when no one was playing it.

In an instant, the world fell silent.

The sound was like a thread, suddenly tightening everyone's nerves. The child's hand unconsciously gripped Xiaoman's clothes, Duoduo subconsciously took a half step back, and the gray-haired child's eyes widened, even stopping his breathing.

Su Ting clenched his fists and growled, "Xiaoman! No—"

But it's too late.

The ocarina left the girl's palm and fell into Xiaoman's hand.

The moment they made contact, her pupils suddenly contracted.

Memories explode.

It's not her memory.

Three hundred years ago, under the moonlight, a woman knelt before a stone platform, holding the same ocarina in her hand. She sang the same song, but with a different melody and a slower rhythm, carrying a strange cadence, like a summons or a soothing melody.

"...The moonlight climbs the wall, and my mother is singing..." the woman hummed softly, her voice so gentle it could melt iron.