Ghost Detective Records - Chapter 78
"We'll definitely make it in time!" Abao said, as if to affirm or to reassure himself, as he followed closely behind me.
The two rushed out of the old teaching building and ran towards the laboratory building. At that moment, I really wished I could grow a pair of wings and fly there.
Li Yang, Li Yang, you absolutely cannot get into trouble. This is the only thing I can do for Li Hai, and it's a promise I once made...
Volume Three: Delicacies of Hell, Chapter Thirteen: Crying and Wailing
Volume Three: Delicacies of Hell, Chapter Thirteen: Crying and Wailing
Li Yang glanced at the toilet, but there was no movement, as if no one was inside. Li Yang began to wonder if A Bao's speed could rival that of a tortoise.
"Abao, are you done yet?" Li Yang called out tentatively. The empty building was filled only with Li Yang's shouts and echoes, like the singing of countless ghosts and demons.
What's going on? Li Yang moved forward a little worriedly. A Bao remained silent, like a stone thrown into the sea. But it was the women's restroom after all, and Li Yang didn't dare to rush in. Just then, Li Yang suddenly felt as if a strange sound drifted into his ears. It was very light and extremely faint, like a sobbing sound, shrill and mournful.
The moonlight streaming in through the window seemed to transform into undulating, flowing silver waves, rippling before Li Yang's eyes, with what appeared to be brown water droplets rising from the floor. Instantly, the unpleasant odor in the air intensified, and the damp air sent chills down Li Yang's spine, making his skin feel even more damp.
Touching his exposed skin, Li Yang felt his fingers were greasy. Looking down in the moonlight, he saw that his hands were covered in brown liquid that had stuck to his skin.
"What is that?" Li Yang shook his hand, and the crying from before became even louder, but it was muffled, as if it were a sound coming from inside the wall, like a howl after crying to the extreme, with a dry and hoarse voice.
Where is that crying coming from? Li Yang looked at the closed classroom doors, as if a monster lurked behind each one. He tried to approach one of the doors and listened carefully, but found that the crying didn't seem to be coming from inside the classroom; it sounded more like it was coming from inside the walls.
A wall that cries? Li Yang curiously approached the wall. The moment his hand touched it, he felt an icy chill, like an electric current, shooting through his fingertips. He also felt an overwhelming mix of anger and despair. This emotion swirled around Li Yang's heart like a cauldron, causing him to instinctively back away, trying to escape it.
"Abao, Abao, come out quickly!" Li Yang took a few deep breaths and shouted towards the entrance of the women's restroom. This place was unclean, and he had to leave as soon as possible. This was Li Yang's only thought at the moment, but the problem was that Abao didn't move at all.
What happened to Abao? Did something happen? Li Yang suddenly realized how careless he had been. Going to the toilet shouldn't have taken this long. Abao must have bumped into something! Thinking of this, Li Yang didn't care about the women's restroom anymore and rushed in.
"Abao!" Li Yang stood in the empty women's restroom. There was no trace of Abao. The dim shadows around him surged toward Li Yang like little devils from hell. He felt as if he were in an ice cellar. Li Yang shivered, and the sound of his own heartbeat echoed in his ears like a drum.
Where is he? Where is Abao? Li Yang froze on the spot. The narrow toilet allowed Li Yang to see everything at a glance, but not Abao. There was no space to hide in this kind of place. Abao wouldn't be so bored as to play hide-and-seek with him at this time.
But...where are the people?
Li Yang began to feel afraid, not of the haunted building, but of what might happen to A Bao. Ever since Li Hai left, Li Yang had been terrified that his friends would also leave him; the pain of the dead leaving the living was something Li Yang was unwilling to experience again. So, when A Bao disappeared right before his eyes, Li Yang immediately became helpless.
Crying...
The strange crying sound seemed to grow closer, as if it were right beside me...
Turning my head, a figure was gradually emerging from the wall behind me, slowly appearing like a relief sculpture. The figure's head seemed to be shattered, with crimson blood seeping out and dripping onto the ground. Looking closer, I saw that the head had burst open from the middle, but the skull was empty, nothing inside, only the continuously gushing blood…
***********
After a sprint like a final sprint, Abao and I finally arrived at the foot of the laboratory building.
"Abao, you stay here," I said to Abao, who was following closely behind me.
"No, I want to go with you," Abao said anxiously.
"No, Abao, please listen to me, okay?" I tried to persuade him gently. This laboratory building looked eerie, and it was really not a good idea to let Abao take the risk.
“But…” Abao pouted.
"Abao!" I interrupted Abao, saying, "Listen, I need someone to stay here and keep watch. If I haven't come out with Li Yang in an hour, you can find more people to help. But if you go in with us, where will we get backup?" I explained patiently.
“This…” Abao began to waver.
"Trust me, okay?" I patted Abao on the shoulder. Although she had testified against me before, I still considered Abao my friend.
“Okay!” Abao looked at me and finally gave in. But just as I was about to turn around and go into the building, Abao suddenly grabbed me again. Looking at her, she was fidgeting with her fingers and then whispered, “Lin Xiao, I’m sorry.”
"Huh? What are you sorry for?" I didn't understand what Abao meant at all and asked stupidly.
"This...this...I didn't mean to say that about you!" Abao looked at me with a wronged expression, like a child admitting their mistake. Only then did I realize that she was apologizing for pointing fingers at me.
"Hehe, it's nothing, don't worry about it. As long as you believe in me, that's all that matters." I patted Abao's head affectionately, feeling like she was just my little sister.
“Then you and Li Yang must come out!” Abao said to me.
"Okay, I got it." I smiled and waved at her, then walked towards the laboratory building.
As soon as I stepped onto the ground floor of the laboratory building, a blast of cold air hit me like a raging flood. I pulled at my collar, but the cold air still rushed in, making it hard to breathe as if my chest was being crushed.
At the top of the stairs, I looked up. The second floor seemed like an unknown black hole, capable of swallowing everything. Li Yang, are you alright? I instinctively touched the jade pendant on my chest, but felt my body almost numb with cold.
As I climbed the stairs, I felt the surface was extremely slippery, and I almost slipped. The surface didn't seem to be water, but rather covered in a sticky liquid; stepping on it made a squeaking sound, and the stinging sensation made my ears itch.
I pressed my ears. I was standing on the stairs, and there was no one around, but I seemed to hear a woman's smug, soft laughter very close to my ears. I immediately looked around, but there was no one there. Just when I thought I was hallucinating, the laughter started again, this time even louder than before, only this time it was behind me.
I turned around abruptly, but there was no one behind me. However, my foot slipped due to the sudden turn, and my body tilted backward. I quickly grabbed the handrail next to me.
Suddenly, in that instant, I felt another cold hand cover the back of my left hand, which was holding onto the handrail, and it definitely wasn't my own right hand. Startled, I instinctively let go of the handrail with my left hand, and my body naturally fell down.
With a loud thud, I landed hard on the stairs. The protruding step hit my back, but the pain gave me a jolt. The taekwondo I learned in college made me much more agile than the average person. Just as my head was about to hit the floor, I braced myself with my right hand, stopping my descent. But my whole body was already lying face down on the stairs, almost falling flat on my face.
Without looking up, just a fleeting glance out of the corner of my eye, I saw a white dress flutter past my eyes and vanish instantly. When I looked up again, there was nothing on the stairs.
I stood up and looked at my right hand, which was covered in dust and a brownish liquid, greasy and sticky, like engine oil.
Ignoring the pain in my back, I quickly ran up the stairs. The second-floor corridor was deserted. I walked forward toward the women's restroom that Abao had mentioned. Just as I reached the door, Li Yang's loud shout rang out...
***********
What was that? Li Yang took a step back, and the figure emerging from the wall gradually became clearer. It was the face of a woman who was already dead, filled with terror and despair. Her wide-open mouth and bulging eyes showed her unwillingness and fear before death. It was the fear that humans have innate towards death, but it was now frozen on this woman's face. Her forehead, which had been cracked open, revealed the pink skull and the blood vessels on it. Her nose also seemed to have collapsed, leaving only two small black holes. One ear seemed to have been torn apart, leaving only half of it.
The woman's limbs appeared to be broken, and she stood in a posture that no normal person could achieve. Her head seemed to have been attached directly to her shoulders, leaving her without a head or neck. Li Yang was familiar with this horrific sight. His first murder case after graduation was a suicide by jumping from a building. The victim in that case was in the same state. Due to the impact of the fall, her cervical vertebrae had been completely crushed into her chest cavity by the force of the fall, as if a broken watermelon had been attached to her shoulders.
"Ahhh!" Li Yang tried to scream, but the sound was swallowed by something, and he only managed to open his mouth symbolically. The woman's wails grew even more agonizing, like the mournful cries of demons in a hellish realm. The crying grew louder and louder, until it seemed to be resonating within Li Yang's head.
Damn it! Li Yang desperately plugged his ears, but the sound didn't disappear; instead, it intensified. Li Yang pressed his ears down with all his might, only to feel a tearing pain in his chest that grew stronger and stronger. Unable to hold back any longer, Li Yang screamed, "Ahhhhh!"
"Li Yang!" Lin Xiao's voice suddenly came from the doorway. In the blink of an eye, he had rushed in, and Li Yang didn't even have a chance to stop him.
When I rushed in, I only saw Li Yang standing alone in the middle of the women's restroom, desperately covering his ears. His face looked extremely pale in the dim light, his eyes were bloodshot, and his features were contorted. And around him, there was nothing...
Volume 3: Delicacies of Hell, Chapter 14: Wounded
Volume 3: Delicacies of Hell, Chapter 14: Wounded
"Li Yang, Li Yang!" I shook Li Yang's body hard, and with great difficulty, his previously scattered eyes finally refocused.
“Lin…Lin Xiao?” Li Yang stared at me blankly, then turned to look at the wall and said, “There was a corpse in the wall just now!”
"A corpse?" I glanced at the wall as well. Although it was yellowed, there was absolutely no sign of a corpse.
"You have to believe me!" Li Yang noticed the doubt in my eyes.
"Wait a minute!" I said as I walked to the wall, reached out and touched it. Apart from being a bit cold, there was nothing else particularly special about it.
"I think we should leave here as soon as possible." I looked around, and for some reason, although no ghosts or monsters appeared in front of me, I hated and even feared this place from the bottom of my heart. I always felt that something was hiding in those dark shadows.
"But..." Li Yang was clearly still thinking about what he had just seen.
“I believe you!” I interrupted Li Yang and said, “But it is precisely because we believe what you say that we need to leave as soon as possible. We must protect ourselves before we figure things out.”
"This..." Li Yang paused for a moment, then finally nodded and said, "Alright, let's go!"
Li Yang and I walked out of the women's restroom and ran downstairs as fast as we could. The lights in the corridor were already dim, but they suddenly went out just as we were about to reach the stairwell, and darkness immediately engulfed us. My heart tightened, and I immediately said to Li Yang beside me, "Be careful, stay behind me."
"I know," Li Yang replied from beside me. Although I couldn't see him, I could hear his slightly rapid breathing in the darkness.
The stairs were still slippery, and we carefully followed our instincts as we went down step by step. For some reason, my palms started to sweat, and a chill ran straight into my body from my neck and head, and then the coldness rushed straight to my head.
Although we were walking slowly in the dark, we had already climbed at least thirty or forty steps, but it felt like the stairs would never end. Li Yang and I began to sense that something was wrong.
"Lin Xiao, why can't we reach the end?" Li Yang asked beside me.
"I don't know, there weren't this many steps when I came up!" I stopped in my tracks. It was too dark all around, so no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't see anything clearly. I anxiously wiped the sweat from my forehead.
"What should we do?" Li Yang stopped behind me, and he sounded very anxious.
"Don't panic!" I tried to tell myself. Just then, I heard a very faint voice calling out, "Lin Xiao~~~!"
It was a woman's soft call, so it definitely wasn't Li Yang calling me! I felt my back stiffen, and I stood there without making a sound.
"Lin Xiao!" The woman's voice was soft and drawn out, making me want to respond, but subconsciously I was suppressing this desire. My hand was clenched into a fist, and my arm was trembling slightly.
"Lin Xiao, it sounds like someone is calling me!" Li Yang suddenly said behind me, his voice having a strange, flat quality.
I immediately grabbed his hand and said, "Don't answer her!"
I closed my eyes and began to try to sense everything around me. Every living thing has a soul, and a soul is a kind of transformed wave field. As long as you pay attention, you can feel it. Just like now, several extremely chaotic wave fields appeared around me at the same time. Besides Li Yang, I felt there were two other ones, and they clearly carried a sense of resentment. The waves could even convey hatred and despair. These two waves surged towards me like a tide. I felt my breathing becoming increasingly difficult, as if the air was being squeezed out by these two waves. Li Yang's arm in my hand was trembling violently.
"Close your eyes," I instructed Li Yang. Although I didn't know if he could still hear me, I could feel the two waves swirling rapidly around my voice, and a current of air slowly forming around us. The airflow felt like a tiny, incredibly sharp blade cutting through my skin.
I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore the pain in my body, trying to feel the gap between the two waves. But in that instant, I suddenly felt the only gap on the right.
Now! There was no time to consider the consequences. I knew clearly the limits of both myself and Li Yang. I pulled Li Yang sharply, and my body lurched to the right!
When my right side slammed into the ground, it felt like I'd hit a solid steel plate. The force of the impact made my vision blur, tears streamed down my face, and the cracking sound of my bones sent shivers down my spine. My chest felt heavy and tight, as if struck by a massive blow. But… I think we escaped! Because I saw Ah Bao running towards me.
"Lin Xiao, Li Yang!" A Bao ran up to me almost in tears.
"Li Yang?" I turned to look at him with a hoarse voice. He was pale and breathing heavily, but thankfully, he had survived.
"No...it's nothing!" Li Yang waved his hand at me with difficulty.
I looked up and around again, only to find that the collision had actually knocked us out of that damned lab building. The two of us were lying in a very undignified position in front of the main entrance on the ground floor of the lab building.
"Let me help you up!" Abao reached out to help us up, but as soon as he touched my right arm, I screamed like a pig being slaughtered.
"Ahhh! It hurts!" I gasped. The excitement of escaping had made me oblivious to the pain, but now I realized that the right side of my body, especially my right arm, was aching as if I had a muscle strain. Even a light touch made my face cramp.
"What's wrong with you?" Li Yang looked at me worriedly, but dared not touch my right arm again.
"It's not broken, is it?" Abao looked at my hand, then asked Li Yang, "Are you injured anywhere?"
"I'm fine, I just had some difficulty breathing." Li Yang stood up and came to my left, trying to help me up, saying, "Let me help you."
"Should we go to the hospital?" Abao asked me worriedly from the side.
"No need," I shook my head and said, "It's just a soreness. I think I'll be fine after a rest." Actually, it wasn't that I wasn't worried about my body, but going to the hospital to explain how I got injured would be extremely troublesome. Moreover, if Ni Ming knew that A Bao and I had met, he might add another charge of intending to threaten a witness to my name.
"Are you sure?" Li Yang helped me up and asked.
"Ugh!" I struggled to stand up straight. Although my right side was still very sore, all I wanted to do was get out of this awful place as soon as possible.
Limping along, I let Li Yang support me as the three of us left the lab building as quickly as possible. As soon as we got back to the guesthouse, Abao couldn't help but ask, "What happened to you guys?"