Actions fantômes

Chapitre 1

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I won't be your doll

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August 15, 1932

late at night.

Dark clouds imprisoned the round moon behind it, and the sky was gloomy, so dark that one could not see their own hand in front of their face.

A young child walked through a dark alley, with thousands of crows circling overhead. Wherever the child went, the crows followed, moving silently over the village like an ominous dark cloud. Finally, the child arrived at the door of Ning, the village's wealthy landowner, and suddenly burst into tears! The crows above him began to caw wildly, their ghostly cries echoing throughout the entire village.

The entire village was awakened by the noise. They put on their clothes and came out of their houses, looking up to find the source of the cawing. Immediately, discussions about the crows filled the air from every household.

"Where did this cawing crow come from? What bad luck!"

"Old Liu, did you hear that? You heard it too?"

"Oh dear! I don't know what bad luck I've gotten myself into! How unlucky! I was woken up in the middle of the night by that nagging old man!"

Someone shouted:

"The old nag is at Old Master Ning's house!"

So, many daring men rushed towards Old Man Ning's house. Upon arrival, they found a dense flock of crows perched on the roof, making the house's shape irregular. Under the cover of night, their menacing appearance was terrifying, their claws outstretched as if they wanted to devour people! It was extremely eerie… Around the imposing stone lions at the main gate, a dozen horses were tethered, their chaotic snorting suppressing the hurried travelers. Inside the house, however, there was a great deal of noise and bustling activity, with flickering, eerie firelight appearing intermittently. The villagers were all curious about what was happening inside, but a burly man stood at the entrance, blocking their path. He carried a large steel knife, his thick arms bulging with veins, and his large head had a ten-centimeter-long scar across his nose, like a small snake, silently exuding an evil aura.

He was like a gatekeeper, fierce and menacing. Seeing so many people gathering, he roared at them:

"What are you looking at? Get out! All of you, get out!"

The villagers were all terrified by the scar; no one dared to utter a sound. They all obediently turned and began to walk back. Among the sighing crowd was a small child—the same mysterious child from the beginning—who was now nestled in his father's arms. His large, still tear-filled eyes were fixed on the burly man with the scarred face, his expression incongruous with his appearance. Only after they had entered their own doorway and the man had completely disappeared from his sight did he turn to his father and say:

"Father, that person is going to die."

His father was an honest, even somewhat dull, man; he hadn't even noticed his child disappearing in the middle of the night. But upon hearing this, his expression changed drastically. He pulled his hand away and lightly slapped his son, saying:

"Don't talk nonsense, kid! You might lose your head!"

After being beaten, the child neither cried nor made a fuss. He just stared at his father with his bright eyes and didn't say a word.

Inside the mansion of the old landlord Ning Jinchun, a lively scene unfolded: a dozen burly men were busy smashing and looting. Almost every part of the house was wrecked and then set on fire. Only a small study facing north survived, though it wasn't burned, it was riddled with holes from being pried open. Everything inside had been taken away, except for a single mahogany chair. Because it was too heavy, and perhaps not as practical as the flour and tobacco, no one touched it. In the ravaged and dilapidated little house, it stood forlornly against the wall, a poignant dialogue between opulent grandeur and utter desolation.

The fire burned for a long time, its flames shooting straight into the sky, illuminating the gloomy heavens. There should have been a full moon tonight, but now, dark clouds filled the sky, blocking its light from the darkness. Between heaven and earth, Old Man Ning's house roared to life, the flames strangely leaping several meters high at times, then flickering eerily. Just as they were about to die down, the flames would leap up again, dozens of meters high. After lighting the fire, the group jumped onto their horses and galloped away in circles. The loud thud of their hooves drowned out the sound of the flames and the shouts and curses of the thieves as they scrambled for their loot.

Strange phenomena continued until sunrise, when the sunlight dispelled the gloom, the sky was cloudless, and the sunlight shone brightly on the earth, dazzling people's eyes.

The villagers of Donglai Village witnessed the strange phenomena that occurred as the fire burned, but instead of showing surprise, they wore eerie expressions. The bandits were gone, the crows continued to caw, and the night remained dark…

The old house, having survived the calamity, was almost entirely reduced to ashes, leaving only the dilapidated study, with its scarred brick walls and a large hole punched in the roof, sheltering the broken house from the wind and rain.

Before long, it was after Liberation. Director Liu of the county party committee office was in charge of party building work in a village. He was also tasked with sending young cadres to the grassroots for training. So, he was sent to Donglai, a small but mysterious village. It was said that the people there were ignorant and backward, and no one was inclined to align themselves with the organization. Village officials transferred from higher levels would mysteriously die within a week, and the murderer had never been found. Director Liu was under immense pressure, but due to his youthful vigor, he was eager and confident after accepting the assignment.

The car sped along.

"These past few days have been so annoying with all the things happening in the county!" Director Liu muttered wearily, then rubbed his swollen eyes with his chubby fingers.

The driver turned around, smiled humbly, revealing a few gleaming white teeth:

"Director, you've worked so hard these past few days. There's still a long way to go before we get to Donglai! Why don't you get some sleep? Maybe you'll have a good dream!" Then he chuckled a few times.

Director Liu suddenly shuddered. The strange dream from last night, like a wisp of mist, surfaced in his mind, gradually becoming clearer...

As Director Liu walked home alone, he looked up and saw his warm home at the end of the tree-lined path. A warm feeling welled up in his heart. He could go home again. Thinking of his virtuous wife and his smart and sensible son, Director Liu couldn't help but sigh: Ah! Home is the best!

Suddenly, the streetlights went out strangely, plunging the road into darkness. Director Liu felt as if he had been squeezed into another space by this immense darkness. Then, his vision suddenly brightened, and he noticed a blinding halo on the trunk of a large tree to his left. Director Liu turned around in surprise: a beam of intense light, accompanied by the ear-piercing roar of an engine, rushed towards him...

"Director! Director! Donglai has arrived! Hehe..." Xiao Zou chuckled a few more times.

Director Liu woke up in a panic, the first thing he saw clearly was Xiao Zou's gleaming white teeth. He turned his head away in disgust. Why was Xiao Zou smiling so strangely today? he wondered. Right, Xiao Zou's hometown is here. Is he happy because he can go home? Such awareness! Having him drive me is a huge downgrade! Looks like I'll have to consider changing drivers when we get back.

The scenery outside the window gradually became familiar. This was Donglai Village, where he was preparing to show his skills. However, it was unusually quiet. The air in the village seemed to have frozen, without a trace of life.

At this moment, Director Liu suddenly felt nauseous, as if a thousand-pound weight was pressing on his chest. He felt both suffocated and nauseous, and for a moment he was at a loss.

Then, the car lurched violently and screeched to a halt. Caught off guard, Director Liu was thrown into the air, his head slamming hard against the roof. Director Liu winced in pain, glaring angrily at Xiao Zou, who gave an awkward smile, revealing his gleaming white teeth.

"Director, there's no road ahead."

"What?! Such a big village has no roads?!"

Director Liu got out of the car, seething with anger. He stood still, took a deep breath, and the scent of the fields filled his nostrils, instantly clearing his mind, though there was a faint, fishy smell in his nose.

Then, when I got to the front of the car, I saw that the cement road surface looked like it had been cut off, with the connection between it and the yellow soil being clean and sharp.

"Xiao Zou! Go check what's going on up ahead! How did the road get built into the farmland? This village is ridiculous!"

Strangely, Xiao Zou did not respond and leave as usual. Instead, he retreated to the side of the road, grinned, and revealed his repulsive white teeth.

"You..." Director Liu was about to explode when suddenly, the empty car roared to life, its wheels spinning rapidly. Mud splattered onto Director Liu's face. Just as he was about to wipe the mud away, the headlights suddenly flashed on, and then, miraculously, the car broke free of the mud. Fear, like two rows of enormous teeth, gripped Director Liu's heart tightly. Two images were frozen in his pupils: Xiao Zou's gleaming white teeth, and the car that was hurtling towards him like a demon.

…………

As the days went by, the name Donglai Village was gradually forgotten. To this day, even very old people chatting together will no longer mention this chilling name.

Then came the end of the twentieth century.

After Phoenix High School broke ground in Donglai, strange things began to happen. People said that the construction site was haunted, and the haunting was very fierce. People were often dragged from the workers' shed to the wilderness in the middle of the night.

One of the workers was sleeping at night when he suddenly felt something was wrong. He opened his eyes and was so terrified that he wet himself. He saw himself being dragged by two hands toward a mass grave outside the construction site. The hands seemed to be attached to thin air, without any body. They were also chillingly cold. The worker's heart pounded. He couldn't feel anything in his ankles. He suddenly had a strong urge to chop off his own feet, but he didn't even have the courage to move his fingers.

The worker, his trousers soaked, was dragged along, completely unconscious and offering no resistance. He was finally pulled to a small grave, and then the two hands slowly vanished into thin air. Seeing the terrifying thing disappear, the worker tried to run, but his limbs were as weak as noodles; he couldn't even crawl. He could only lie there trembling, waiting for dawn. Seeing the surrounding graves, high and low, the worker's hands and feet shook violently; an unprecedented, immense fear gripped him. Almost a lifetime passed before the sun rose. When the first rays of dawn shone, the man regained his strength, took off running, and stumbled back to the workers' shed. He hurriedly told the other workers about the terrifying incident, and then quit that very day. The foreman, hearing the story, didn't stop him; he didn't care about losing one or two people and didn't take it seriously.

However, several more incidents occurred at the construction site where people were dragged away in their dreams. One night, four people were dragged away at the same time. One of them woke up in fright on a grave and screamed, waking up the others. The four men encouraged each other and stayed in the mass grave until dawn. Then they all quit their jobs that day.

Things had gotten to this point, and the construction site was filled with fear. Many timid workers quit. Seeing this, the foreman had no choice but to invite a shaman to perform a ritual on the site, and only then did the ghostly incident gradually subside...

With fewer workers on the construction site, the project progressed slowly, which is why it took nearly two years to build these few dilapidated buildings at Phoenix High School.

After the school began enrolling students, the ghost stories reappeared. Although the form was different this time, they still pushed people's psychological defenses to the limit.

One incident was particularly big, causing a sensation throughout the entire school, and the principal almost couldn't quell it...

One winter morning, the students, still sleepy-eyed, gathered at the designated spot for morning exercises. The last group was from Class 6 of the third year of high school. A few boys in the back row had arrived early, and since there was still some time before the exercises began, they huddled together chatting. One of them said:

"Has our school started recruiting students again these past few days?"

Everyone else was puzzled.

"No, what's wrong? Did you hear something?"

The guy who asked the question was also puzzled, so he pointed behind him.

"So, which class is the next one?"

"The back? Bullshit! There's nothing behind it!"

"Damn it, open your eyes wide and look! There are thirty or forty people there! They're all lined up!"

"Go to hell! Who are you trying to scare?" The boy who said this was actually a little scared.

“There’s nothing behind this, stop making things up!” another person chimed in.

The debate competition was about to begin when suddenly a furious shout rang out from the sky!

"Stand still! What are you talking about when we're about to do morning exercises?!" The homeroom teacher's stern face appeared on one side of the line, and all the boys immediately fell silent.

"Run!" The sports committee member's voice broke the silence, and the group began to move.

The matter wasn't over yet. As the students ran across the square in front of the teaching building, the deputy director of the academic affairs office, who was supervising the exercise, suddenly flew into a rage and shouted:

"You last team! Stop right there! What are you doing running like that? You're like soldiers who've just suffered a defeat!"

Most of the boys in Class 6 of the third year of high school felt a chill run down their spines. Getting a beating from this teacher would be no joke. This teacher was known for beating even teachers of lower rank than themselves; he was incredibly fierce. Rumor had it that he was a retired special forces soldier hired to oversee military and political discipline. He had a face full of menacing features and an imposing aura that commanded respect even without anger.

Just as they were bracing themselves to stop, they discovered that the deputy director of the academic affairs office had run to the open space behind them and was shouting at the air!

"What kind of things are you! Even if you're not in sync during morning exercises, how can you run like this, you bunch of bastards!? You..." Before he could finish speaking, he collapsed to the ground, frantically groping behind him, trying to crawl away. His eyes were wide open like a bull's, and he was muttering something unintelligible. From that moment on, he became a madman and was sent to a mental hospital on the outskirts of the city.

It's said that the deputy director of the academic affairs office saw something he shouldn't have seen that morning, but there was actually nothing behind it. That's what everyone said afterward. However, the boy from Class 6 of the third year of high school said that he also saw a class behind him. The other students didn't believe him. Was it because they really didn't believe him, or because they were afraid to believe him? And did that mysterious class ever actually appear? These questions remain a mystery...

Chapter One: Embarking on a Deadly Path (Part 1)

One

"How was that? Was it exciting? You never thought something so terrifying had happened at our school, did you? My aunt told me about it!" A boy's smug voice suddenly rang out in the corner of the dormitory. No one knew what everyone was thinking during that brief moment of silence.

“Hey, Lei Zi, you’re not making this up, are you? If that director is already dead, and Xiao Zou isn’t a normal person anymore, then who told your aunt this story?” Su Shengwen asked slowly and deliberately in his refined voice.

"Um, well, I'm not quite sure about that, hehe!" Zhong Lei was probably already blushing in the darkness. He hadn't expected his fabricated story to be exposed so quickly. Ugh! How embarrassing!

"Tch! If you're going to make up a story to scare people, at least make it decent! This is so low-level, even a primary school student would see through it!" Bi Bin rolled over in the darkness, first snorting contemptuously through his nostrils, then criticizing Zhong Lei with utter disdain.

"Shh! The inspectors are coming!" Liu Dong, who was lying on the bed by the door and keeping watch, warned the group who were chatting away. Instantly, the entire dormitory fell silent.

Less than a minute later, a dark figure crouched down on the dormitory door, peering through the small glass window. Because he was backlit, no one could see his expression. After about three minutes, he turned right and, with a series of "thump-thump" footsteps, went to check the next dormitory.

"Phew! The inspectors are finally gone. I was so nervous!" Su Shengwen said after letting out a long sigh.

However, everyone else in the dormitory seemed to have vanished into thin air, remaining completely silent. Su Shengwen tensed up again. Could it be that the person hadn't left yet?

The deathly silence lasted for about five minutes. Seeing that nothing was happening, Su Shengwen was very puzzled. What was going on? What were these people doing?

"What's wrong with you all? Why are you all suddenly silent?"

The only answer he received was the ticking of his alarm clock beside his pillow. How strange! Had he suddenly fallen asleep? Impossible! They were just chatting away! He'd just exposed Zhong Lei and hadn't even had a chance to properly mock him! How could he just let it go?

"Zhong Lei! Are you asleep?" As he spoke, he turned his head to look at the bed not far from him. He could only see a dark mass on the bed, and he couldn't see anything clearly. This made Su Shengwen feel even more frightened.

"Don't scare me! Say yes!"

The darkness seemed to be mocking him, remaining completely silent throughout.

Suddenly, a strong urge to urinate hit Su Shengwen, causing him to sit up abruptly and go to the toilet.

The corridor outside was dimly lit, and through the small window in the door, one could see a sinister pale yellow color, like the face of someone who had just died. Yet, the fluids within him surged forth again, threatening to spill out. Finally, with no other option, Su Shengwen gritted his teeth, got out of bed, slipped on his slippers, groped his way to the door, and gently opened it—

Squeak—creak—

"Damn it, this hinge needs oiling!" The voice he'd just heard sent shivers down his spine.

Once in the hallway, he quietly closed the door and began walking towards the restroom at the end of the hallway.

"Pat-pat! Pat-pat..." The sound of slippers was particularly loud in the empty corridor. Su Shengwen deliberately stomped his feet harder, the louder the sound, the more it could dispel the fear in his heart.