Midnight Paranormal Handbook

Chapter 1

Midnight Paranormal Handbook Author: Ma Boyong

Prologue

"Alright, let's begin."

She brushed her hair back, slowly looked around, and said seriously. The other three nodded, and all four of them stretched out to the center of the table, crossed their hands, and held their wrists in the air. Then they placed a freshly sharpened pencil in the gap between their hands and held it tightly, the tip of the pencil lightly touching the white paper on the table.

The room was silent, save for the slightly tense breathing of the four girls. Four candles were lit at the four corners of the table, their flickering light casting uncertain shadows on their faces.

It was midnight in early summer, the clock had long since struck twelve, and the entire room was enveloped in a dim, yellow candlelight, while outside the slightly ajar window lay a stagnation of darkness.

"Ouija board spirit, Ouija board spirit, please come out! Ouija board spirit, Ouija board spirit, please come out..."

All four of them closed their eyes, their lips moved slightly, and they silently recited in their hearts.

Nearly a minute later, a breeze seemed to blow in from outside the window, causing the flames of the four candles to tremble. At the same time, all four people felt an invisible pressure on their hands, gentle yet cold. The pencil moved slowly with this pressure, its tip gently drawing a circle on the paper, and the temperature in the room seemed to drop slightly.

"They've arrived..."

Someone whispered something, and the four of them leaned back in unison, their hands still tightly gripping their pencils.

"...Let's start asking questions."

"Hmm... let me think, Ouija board, Ouija board, what was I in my past life?" A girl hesitated for a long time, swallowed hard, and asked softly.

After she finished asking her question, the dormitory fell silent. Everyone held their breath and stared intently at the white paper.

"Look, the pen is moving!"

They felt that invisible pressure driving the pencil to move across the paper, initially just unintentional lines, but gradually taking shape, seemingly forming several words:

"I'm on Huanhua Road."

Ring road?

Huanhua Road is the name of the neighborhood northwest of their dormitory, but what does that have to do with their past life? The girls looked at each other, completely bewildered.

"Ouija board, Ouija board, what was I in my past life?" the girl asked again, mustering her courage.

The pencil glides silently across the paper.

"I'm at the East Gate"

"..."

The east gate refers to the east gate of their school's dormitory area, but... this has absolutely nothing to do with her question.

The four girls exchanged confused glances, a sense of unease rising within them for no apparent reason.

The pencil, held between four hands, continued to move "scratching" across the paper, its speed increasing and the writing becoming clearer.

"I'm in Building Number One"

"I'm in Building 2."

"I'm in Building 3."

The faces of everyone in the dormitory changed instantly; their dormitory was on the third floor of Building 4.

"You...does anyone have something metal on them?"

The oldest girl suddenly remembered something and asked in a trembling voice, "There's a huge taboo when playing with a Ouija board: the person playing can't carry any metal objects, otherwise something bad might happen. As for what might happen, it depends on what kind of spirit you've summoned..."

Upon hearing this, the other three all lowered their heads and checked with their other hands.

"I don't have any here."

"I don't have any here either."

"No... Ah!"

The last girl suddenly screamed. She noticed that her belt buckle was made of metal. She had been careless and overlooked this before playing with the Ouija board.

The four of them froze, their hands holding pencils suspended in mid-air. A chilling sense of terror crept up their spines like a venomous snake, gripping their hearts. Each of them found their hands and feet icy cold.

"I'm on the second floor of number four."

The words on the paper appeared slowly and deliberately, a huge sense of heaviness enveloping the entire room. The square of darkness outside the window seemed to be watching them. A girl stared wide-eyed, wanting to cry, but dared not make a sound. She bit her lip tightly, her expression distorted with fear.

I'm at the door.

Upon seeing this line of text, the dormitory fell into a deathly silence. The four people sat frozen in their seats like statues, their four hands still holding pencils, suspended over the paper.

There was no wind in the room, yet the flickering candle flame seemed guided by something, stretching towards the doorway. The four shadows were stretched long, swaying between the door and the table in the candlelight… Suddenly, the candle flame went out abruptly, plunging the dormitory into heavy darkness. In the brief moment before the candlelight disappeared, the four of them saw the last sentence the Ouija board had written on the paper:

I am among you...

Chapter One

Midnight Paranormal Handbook by Ma Boyong, Chapter One

What is depression?

In this season, even the warm sunshine cannot bring any more vitality. This bustling city is always immersed in a desolate and lonely atmosphere: the towering buildings have a gray and decadent hue, the pedestrians on the road are all in a hurry, and the telephone poles on both sides of the street are like withered trees that have lost all their leaves, making the heart float with a depressing leaden-gray cloud all day long.

For some reason, Shen Fengxi felt a subtle sense of belonging to this season. Standing on the street, the backpack on his shoulder grew heavier and heavier. He began to feel himself sinking deeper and deeper into a gloomy, oppressive well, sinking to the surface and never to rise again.

What could possibly make this handsome sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy so melancholy? Is it budding romance, heavy academic workload, or a friendship facing a crisis?

No, the real reason is:

He got lost...

"Nonsense! I just don't know where I am!" Shen Fengxi suddenly raised his voice and shouted, attracting curious glances from passersby.

Shen Fengxi scanned the surroundings with a murderous look. It was a bustling street, with five wide avenues stretching in different directions within his field of vision. The street signs were even more dazzling than McDonald's menu.

He tried to find other metaphors, but the image of McDonald's creamy yellow "M" kept popping into his mind. No wonder, he hadn't eaten for most of the day, and his pockets were as empty as his stomach.

"Ugh, I don't want to die like this, my body rotting in the street. I still have life to enjoy! I've never eaten a real lobster! And someone still owes me thirty-seven yuan!" Shen Fengxi wailed incoherently in his mind, gritting his teeth as he looked around at the streets on either side. This was his first day in this metropolis. He had just gotten off the train and was swept up by the surging crowds into a maze-like streetscape, where he had inexplicably boarded the wrong bus. As was his habit over the past ten years, the god of directionality had once again favored this loyal believer.

Suddenly, Shen Fengxi sensed something amiss. He abruptly turned around, his gaze fixed on a point in the distance. The end of his gaze was a two-story internet cafe with the words "Blue Broadband" written on it. Bicycles were parked outside, and people were constantly going in and out.

A sinister smile played at the corners of his mouth, making his otherwise handsome face resemble that of a villain from a movie.

"Hmph, I actually saw this when I was already furious! I'll let you taste the resentment of the poor!" Shen Fengxi finally found a place to vent his anger. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and strode into the internet cafe.

The internet cafe was bustling with noise and the air was thick with tension. Men and women sat engrossed in rows of computers, most chatting with friends on the other end of the network via webcam. A few were playing online games. Shen Fengxi glanced around, a mocking glint in his eyes. He walked straight to the cashier, slammed his hand on the counter, and shouted, "Is the owner here?"

"That's me, kid. You want to go online?" A fashionable woman in her forties sized up Shen Fengxi. "Minors are not allowed inside except on holidays. But if you're willing to add an extra dollar, I might..." Shen Fengxi chuckled and held out his hand: "Boss, if you give me a hundred dollars, I'll clean this place for you." The woman was taken aback at first, then waved her hand impatiently and said, "Go away, go away, little beggar."

“Boss, I can help you clean up some unclean things…” Shen Fengxi leaned on the table, brought his face close to the female boss, and gave her a seductive smile, enunciating each word clearly. Upon hearing this, the female boss looked a little uncomfortable, and her tone softened: “Nonsense, I don’t have such unclean things here.”

Shen Fengxi didn't speak, but simply pointed to a computer in the corner of the room. All the computers in the internet cafe were occupied, except for that one, which was completely empty, its screen covered by a cloth. The female owner's expression changed drastically upon seeing this. Looking around to make sure no one was watching, she lowered her voice and said to Shen Fengxi, "You, how did you know?"

Shen Fengxi shook his head impatiently. He always felt that wasting energy was a sinful thing, so he simply replied, "I was just passing by and happened to see it. Hey, do you want me to help you clean up or not?"

"Sixty," the female boss thought for a moment and then mustered her courage to answer.

“Eighty. If you don’t agree, I’m leaving. Tonight it will sleep with you and tell you a bedtime ghost story,” Shen Fengxi replied calmly.

"Seventy-five." The female boss shuddered.

"Alright, deal." Shen Fengxi snapped his fingers, took the few bills handed to him by the shopkeeper, skillfully flicked them to check their authenticity, then put them in his pocket and let out a long breath.

Then, he casually walked up to the computer, pulled back the cover, turned it on, and took a strange object out of his backpack. The shopkeeper couldn't see it clearly from a distance and didn't dare to ask, so she could only watch the eerie middle school student with trepidation.

The computer booted up quickly; it was a computer running Windows XP with a small, silver webcam. Shen Fengxi skillfully used the mouse to open his QQ account. He scrolled through his friends list and soon found a new QQ account without a name.

"Just as I expected."

Shen Fengxi quickly clicked on the nameless profile picture and then turned on the camera function.

A few seconds later, QQ notified him that the video call had connected. The other person's face should have appeared, but instead, there was only black screen. In the next instant, a strange sound suddenly emanated from the computer case. Shen Fengxi felt himself enveloped in darkness; the surroundings became pitch black and eerily silent.

“Ooh…” A hollow and mournful groan seemed to come from afar, and an invisible pressure surged from all directions.

Shen Fengxi showed no fear, a calmness beyond his years appearing on his fair face as he slowly raised the phone in his hand. The phone's casing was covered with strange patterns, the buttons were marked with different symbols, and the LCD screen was not a typical flat rectangle but a vertical rectangle. As Shen Fengxi's thumb pressed the buttons repeatedly, a vertical, winding mark quickly appeared on the screen, like a talisman.

"For the sake of my lunch, obediently be sent to the afterlife!"

His thumb finally moved to the send button, and he pressed hard. The phone instantly flashed, illuminating the surrounding darkness, and golden threads of light continuously coiled around a strange object. The object resembled a half-blooded skeleton, with a withered expression and long hair.

"He must have been a pig-headed, monkey-faced idiot in life; even as a ghost, he's this ugly." Shen Fengxi concluded without hesitation, then quickly tightened his grip. The light thread abruptly tightened, and the ghost let out a shrill roar. To Fengxi's surprise, it actually broke free from the light thread's restraints and scurried back into the computer.

The QQ icon on the screen suddenly started flashing, and soon the anonymous QQ account displayed a blood-red message:

"I will take my revenge on you!"

"You cowardly scoundrel who only hides in hard drives and scares others with videos, your existence is a disgrace even to the Ghost Clan." Shen Fengxi typed rapidly on the keyboard, his voice ringing out.

The QQ profile picture quickly changed into a hideous skull: "You will all die!"

"I'm sorry, I'm different from you. My future is bright, and many people will cry if someone as handsome as me dies." Shen Fengxi quickly pulled a USB cable from his backpack, bent down, and connected the phone to the computer case. Suddenly, a crackling noise came from the speakers, and the surrounding darkness seemed to thin a little.

"That should do it..." Shen Fengxi thought to himself. He was about to catch his breath when he suddenly realized that he couldn't move at all. "Oh no!"

"Hahaha, I've been waiting for you to plug that thing into the computer. I'm not even on the computer; my resentment is focused on the webcam. You idiot, you've completely misunderstood!"

The skull icon on QQ grinned smugly, and blood began to seep from every crevice of the machine, quickly submerging Shen Fengxi's feet. "You'll become a wronged ghost like me, you meddlesome, stinking Taoist priest!"

The people around him were still busy with their own things. From the owner's perspective, who was carefully hiding behind the counter, all he saw was the middle school student muttering to himself in front of the computer and then suddenly stopping.

As Shen Fengxi was gradually engulfed in blood in the illusion, he still wore a mocking expression: "I think you've misunderstood something."

"What?"

"I'm not meddling in other people's business. If I kill you, I'll get seventy-five dollars, enough for two McDonald's beef burger meals."

The skull paused for a moment, seemingly unsure whether it didn't understand the meaning of the words or was calculating its own worth. Half a minute later, the skull leaped up again: "Die!! I hate it so much!" Blood had already reached Shen Fengxi's waist. He then calmly asked:

"Is this how you hide behind the camera and QQ?"

"Indeed, it embodies my boundless resentment."

"You used to spend all your time on QQ's video chat function, didn't you?"

"good!"

“…” Shen Fengxi sighed, “Then what difference does it make whether you live or die?”

The skull fell silent again, and for even longer than before. When its image flickered again, Shen Feng had an idea.