Ghost Detective Records

Chapter 101

"No way!" Ah Bao seemed reluctant to leave, puffing out his chest and saying, "Don't worry, I won't leave!"

In a short while, the entire mahogany box was filled with water. The water inside seemed strange, with ripples spreading outwards. The temperature in the air suddenly dropped sharply, and I involuntarily shrank my neck. Clearly, without even using my soul summoning spell, I could feel a very large fluctuation sliding across my skin.

Fang Lei began quietly chanting incantations into the mahogany box. The faster she chanted, the more violently the water inside the box rippled. The surrounding scenery began to darken, the furniture blurred and even distorted, and soon everything disappeared. It was as if only the four of us remained standing in an incredibly empty darkness, the surface of the mahogany box emitting a faint red glow.

Slowly, in front of the mahogany box, waves began to appear, like radio signals, and they were even visible to the naked eye. Gradually, they took shape, forming the figure of a woman...

White shirt, blue skirt...

Jiang Mei?

The white shirt was open, revealing the chest underneath. There was a large hole in the chest, with black blood congealed there, like a blooming black rose, proudly holding its head high.

It must be Jiang Mei!

However, she only appears as a two-dimensional image, and it is intermittent, as if she might disappear at any moment.

"Jiang Mei?" I asked softly.

"Give it back to me..." Jiang Mei's voice floated through the air and reached everyone's ears, like the soft singing of a sea siren, with a strange allure.

Fang Lei stopped chanting the incantation, bent down, picked up the mahogany box, and held it to her chest, saying, "I can give it back to you, but you have to answer our questions."

"Ask...a question?" It was unclear whether Jiang Mei was still lucid.

"Yes, answer the question, and I'll give you back your heart." Fang Lei seemed to be coaxing a child.

"A problem!?" Jiang Mei seemed to agree.

"Did you die of illness?" Fang Lei asked.

“Illness? Death…? No… no… he didn’t die from illness.” Jiang Mei’s tone was very firm.

"Who was it? Who killed you?" Fang Lei asked hurriedly.

"Yes...yes..."

Just as Jiang Mei was about to speak, I suddenly sensed something was wrong. It was an instinctive feeling of being watched by a wild beast; my hair stood on end. An unusually large wave surged from the darkness towards us. I saw waves rolling in the surrounding darkness, and even vaguely saw several ghostly faces flickering within them.

"Oh no!" I yelled.

Unfortunately, it was too late. I could only watch helplessly as Jiang Mei's figure was swallowed up by the black wave in front of me, and the words she wanted to say were also swallowed up by the black wave.

Then came a loud bang. I instinctively lunged at Fang Lei, tackling her to the ground. The mahogany box exploded with the bang, turning to ashes right before our eyes!

Volume 3: Delicacies of Hell, Chapter 44: Warning

Volume 3: Delicacies of Hell, Chapter 44: Warning

"Are you alright?" I waved my hand, trying to brush away the dust in the air, and asked Li Yang and A Bao who were lying on the ground not far away. Looking down, Fang Lei seemed to be fine except for her face being covered in dust, which reassured me.

"No...it's nothing." Li Yang coughed as he pulled A Bao to his feet. The dust was so thick that it made their faces all covered in dirt.

"What happened?" Abao asked anxiously. Upon closer inspection, the spot where the mahogany box used to be was now empty, leaving only a small pile of dust.

“Someone is behind this,” Fang Lei said. “I never imagined that this person’s magic power would be so strong.”

I could feel Fang Lei's body trembling slightly as she spoke. I squeezed her hand and gave her a reassuring smile, but she sighed and said, "I'm afraid even my master couldn't achieve such a spell."

"Don't worry, there's always a way." Actually, I felt that this comfort was a bit weak.

"Now look what's happened, we've lost our only clue." Abao shrugged helplessly.

"There will always be a way." I said, as if chanting a spell, trying to comfort them. But when I thought of the black wave that had been hiding such immense energy, my heart sank. There were only seven days left. Bai Ling wanted us to find the person behind it all, but we only had seven days. What could we do? I didn't know. I just felt completely drained.

After all that commotion, it was already noon. Li Yang and A Bao were clamoring to go eat, but I had no appetite at all. In the end, I had no choice but to let Li Yang, A Bao, and Fang Lei go to the cafeteria.

"Wait a moment, I'll go to the cafeteria to buy food and come back to eat with you," Fang Lei said to me before leaving.

"Okay, I'm not hungry, you don't need to rush back." I drank my water as I watched them leave the room. The curtains were still drawn. I suddenly felt how icy the water was; it felt like my esophagus was frozen. I put down the cup and slowly walked to the window to open the curtains, but as soon as I reached out…

Sudden……

That strange feeling is back...

I feel cold all over...

I shivered, looked around, but there was nothing there. Was I just imagining things?

So, he grabbed the curtains and pulled them open...

Behind the curtains wasn't the outdoors, but... the severed body of a little girl in red. Her eyes were empty, just white, and bright red blood flowed down her bluish-black hands. Half of her face was rotting.

"Ah~~!" The little girl let out a sharp scream, which made my eardrums ring.

I took a step back and released the curtains. After the curtains fell, I heard a hissing sound. The little girl tore open the curtains with her blood-stained hands, and I saw a pair of withered little hands sticking out from under the white curtains.

With a thud, I bumped into the table behind me, knocking over the glass of water that had been there earlier. The remaining half-glass of water spilled down the table.

The smell of blood~~~

The smell permeated the air. I looked down and saw that the half-glass of water had turned into thick, sticky blood, and it seemed like there was an endless flow of blood in the glass. My hand touched it; it was so sticky. I rubbed it all over myself, but I couldn't get it off...

When I looked up again, the little girl behind the curtains was gone, leaving only a large, torn hole and bloodstains. Without thinking, I turned and rushed to the door, but hesitated just as I opened it. I was afraid she would appear behind that door too.

But the blood flowing down was increasing, and it was about to reach my feet. I had no choice but to suddenly open the door. There was nothing there!

Catching my breath, I went outside and immediately closed the door. The smell of blood seemed to lessen instantly, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I had to get out, leave this place, and find Fang Lei! Composing myself, I rushed towards the stairwell.

Quiet, quiet, unusually quiet, with only the sound of my own breathing...

This staircase clearly only has three floors, so why isn't it at the bottom yet? How many floors are there already? Probably six or seven! I stopped. Six or seven floors? Where am I?

Looking up, I tried to find the original staircase entrance, but it had disappeared. Only a winding, spiraling staircase remained, with no end in sight.

Hehe~~~!

Laughter~~!

The sound was particularly jarring in the empty stairwell. Who was it? Who was laughing?

I looked down in the direction of the sound and saw a small head suddenly sticking out from the spiral staircase. I could see her red clothes and her bluish-black, half-rotten face!

She's going up!

I couldn't go down. I quickly stopped and started walking uphill, but after only a few steps, the laughter seemed to reappear in the air. I looked up, and the red figure was above me again, like a child playing hide-and-seek with me, yet it filled me with dread.

Suddenly, she appeared in front of me, standing at the top of the stairs, waving at me as if beckoning me to come over. I was startled, and my foot slipped, causing me to tumble down the stairs. In the dizzying blur of my vision, I saw a strange smile on the girl's face.

"Ouch!" I almost groaned as I stood up again, but when I looked around, I found myself standing perfectly fine in the lobby on the first floor. Several students who worked at the guesthouse were looking at me with curious eyes, probably never expecting that someone would roll down the stairs like that!

Ouch! I forced myself to endure it, my face probably contorted in a grimace. What just happened? I looked at the stairs behind me; they looked perfectly normal. It seemed only the pain in my body could tell me if what had just happened had actually occurred.

"Are you alright?" a student came over and asked with concern.

"N-nothing... I'm fine." I touched my forehead, which had slammed hard against the concrete floor. I felt like stars were spinning before my eyes, and my ears were ringing. It sounded like someone was talking to me, but I couldn't make it out...

There was no sound. Only a solitary yet seemingly continuous image flashed before my eyes: golden wheat fields on both sides, an incredibly fast speed, a pair of small hands gripping my waist… Where am I? What am I doing? It seems I'm riding a bicycle? Who's on the back of the bike…? Who is it…?

I shook my head vigorously, and the images vanished instantly. Golden wheat fields? Such a familiar sight. I tried hard to remember where I'd seen them before—was it…in a dream…or…my hometown…?

Hometown? I rubbed my temples. How many years has it been since I've been back? Why did I suddenly think of it? My childhood hometown doesn't seem to hold many memories for me. Even my childhood friends and neighbors are now blurry in my mind.

I took a deep breath. I didn't have time to think about it anymore; I had to find Fang Lei! With that thought, I practically stumbled out of the guesthouse.

**************

In the room, Su Qiao was fixing her hair in front of the mirror. She was combing her hair very slowly. Was she lost in thought? In the quiet room, the only sound could be the comb gliding through her hair.

Suddenly, a small red figure appeared in the mirror. The little girl from before was standing quietly behind Su Qiao. With a snap, Su Qiao slammed the mirror face down on the table, tightly closing her eyes, as if speaking to the little girl or to herself: "I can't see you, I can't see you, I can't see you!"

"Don't you want to see me?" The same eerie voice as Su Qiao's came out of the little girl in red.

"I can't see you, I can't see you, I can't see you!" Su Qiao chanted as if reciting a mantra.

"I am you, how could you not see me? Hehe~~!" The little girl in red seemed to be laughing happily, her body slowly floating towards Su Qiao. After Su Qiao's body trembled violently, the little girl in red disappeared, replaced by a strange smile on Su Qiao's face.

She reached out and slowly turned the mirror that had been upside down on the table back up, seemingly extremely satisfied with her reflection, and said leisurely, "I'm pretty, aren't I, teacher?"

In the darkness of the corner of the room, a figure stirred slightly. The man's face was hidden in the shadows and could not be seen; only a deep voice could be heard saying, "No matter how beautiful she is, she's not yours!"

"It's mine!" Su Qiao's face revealed a fierce expression, as if declaring, "It's mine, all of it is mine!"

**********

I sat on a bench on campus, the needle-like petals of the mimosa tree slowly drifting down, scattering across the ground like a final declaration of love, magnificently and proudly carried away by the wind. Watching couples, pairs of lovers, whizzing past on bicycles, I wondered, who had ever ridden on the back of my bicycle? Yin Xue? It must have been only Yin Xue! I closed my eyes, trying hard to remember, but in vain…

Sigh! I stood up again, and the soreness all over my body from the fall seemed to be getting better. I was about to go find Fang Lei and the others when, after taking just one step, my mind went blank. I swayed and sat back down on the bench. The sounds around me slowly faded away—the laughter, the shouts, the voices…where did they go?

When I looked up again, the bustling campus had suddenly vanished without a trace. The campus became empty and deserted, devoid of people and sound. I slowly stood up, and in that instant, the pink petals of the rows of mimosa trees became exceptionally lush, their color transforming into a bewitching peach-red.

Whoosh! The sound of the wind, and in an instant, petals drifted down, as if a rain of petals was falling. In the middle of the petals in the distance, a familiar figure slowly emerged.

She was still wearing a white dress, her long black hair fluttering in the wind like flower petals, her face pale...

Yin Xue...?

She slowly moved closer, and I saw the glistening tears in her eyes. I couldn't speak for a long time.

"Don't go back, please... don't go back..." Yin Xue said to me sadly.

“Go back...? Go back where?” I asked.

"Don't go back..." Yin Xue kept repeating.

"Why, why don't you go back?" I asked.

"Don't go back...because..." Yin Xue's voice was suddenly drowned out by the sudden gust of wind...I only heard the whooshing sound of the wind, which actually formed a small vortex with pink petals, enveloping Yin Xue's entire body...

Yin Xue! ?

I took a step forward, but felt a heavy pat on my shoulder!

"Lin Xiao!" It was Li Yang's voice.

I turned around and saw Fang Lei, Li Yang, and A Bao all standing behind me. Everything around me was as usual; the noisy sounds were back, only there were more flower petals on the ground. I didn't say anything, I just smiled.

"Lin Xiao, last time you mentioned that ** Province is your hometown?" Li Yang waved a newspaper in front of me.

"Yes." I nodded.

"Something big has happened there!" Li Yang handed me a newspaper like it was a treasure, saying, "Look, they've dug up a national treasure!"

What? A national treasure? There's a national treasure in that remote place? I took the newspaper in disbelief, only to see the words "Tang Dynasty Tomb Unearthed in **County, **Province!" printed on it.