Ghost Stories Series 10

Chapter 46

Chen Yuan's haggard face appeared before my eyes...

Without saying a word, I pushed Chen Yuan aside and walked straight into the hall. Chen Yuan stared at me blankly.

"Who killed Xiao Huan?" I asked coldly.

Chen Yuan's haggard face grew even paler.

"Is it you? Or that woman in black? Why did you go to Xiaohuan's house that day?"

"You've remembered everything?" Chen Yuan finally spoke.

"Haha..." I laughed wildly, tears streaming down my face.

"Though we will never see each other again, I will always be by your side. The words we spoke will never change, and we will never be separated..." I sang softly as I slowly pulled the knife from my pocket.

"You're the one who should apologize to Xiao Huan, not me!" Chen Yuan shouted.

"Tell me, is it you or that woman in black?" I slowly placed the knife against Chen Yuan's neck, but Chen Yuan didn't move.

"I saw it with my own eyes, you chopped Xiao Huan's body into pieces..." My voice was already hoarse, "Do you still want to deny it?"

"Kill me, my life has become meaningless..." Chen Yuan's voice was surprisingly calm.

"Fine, since you won't talk, I'll just have to kill you first. I'll go find that woman in black myself..."

I slowly raised my knife, and Chen Yuan calmly watched me...

"Stop." A clear and melodious female voice rang out, and Xiao Xuan appeared at the entrance of the hall as if floating.

"Xiao Xuan, this has nothing to do with you." My voice softened.

"Yes, this is my business." The voice remained clear and crisp.

"No!" Chen Yuan, who had been calm all along, suddenly shouted excitedly, "This has nothing to do with you, you should leave!"

"Xiao Ming." Xiao Xuan slowly walked to my side without glancing at Chen Yuan.

"I want to know, do you love me more, or do you love Xiao Huan more?"

“I…” I suddenly realized I couldn’t answer.

Xiao Huan and Xiao Xuan seem to be my destined soulmates, and I don't know which is more important. I only know that no matter which of them is hurt, I will protect them without hesitation, even if the price is my life…

I know you can't answer that.

"Because I am Xiao Huan, and Xiao Huan is me."

Xiao Xuan's voice was calm, each word deliberate and clear. I was thunderstruck, stunned, and the knife in my hand fell to the floor.

"Though we will never see each other again, I will always be by your side. The words we said will never change, and we will never be separated..." A gentle hand stroked my hair, and a sweet song flowed from Xiao Xuan's mouth.

"Xiao Huan, why did you say it..." Chen Yuan's loud shouts seemed to go unnoticed by me.

"That day, I waited for you at your house." Xiao Huan, or perhaps Xiao Xuan, spoke calmly about everything that had happened that day...

“I’ve prepared a meal and am waiting for you to come back to celebrate the day we first met. That day marked exactly five years since we first met.”

"I wait, listening to every footstep on the stairs, but it's not you..."

"The knocking finally came, and I happily ran to open the door, only to find Chen Yuan standing there."

"When I saw Chen Yuan, my mood suddenly plummeted. I knew what he was there for."

"From the day I met you, I knew you liked being with many girls. But I believe you love me, and from now on you will only be with me."

"But it's Chen Yuan who always shatters my dreams. Every time you go out with another girl, Chen Yuan comes to tell me."

Xiao Huan turned her head to Chen Yuan, "I know you like me too. Every time you come to tell me this kind of thing, it's just to make me leave Xiao Ming, isn't it?"

Chen Yuan nodded silently. Xiao Huan turned her head to me again, her gentle gaze enveloping me.

“That day, Chen Yuan came to see me, and I immediately knew what had happened. I knew you must be with another woman again.”

“But I never expected that you would bring a woman to my home and into my bed this time…” Xiao Huan’s voice choked up. I lowered my head, feeling only regret.

"At that time, I only wanted to kill that vixen who seduced you, but Chen Yuan grabbed me. He didn't want me to kill anyone; he just wanted me to break up with you..."

"When I fell, I saw that woman stabbing you with a knife..." I murmured. "Also, the Xiao Huan in my dream doesn't look like you."

"The woman stabbed me in the shoulder. When she saw me bleeding, she was terrified, sobered up, and dropped the knife."

"At this moment, Chen Yuan let go of my hand. I picked up the knife on the ground and stabbed it into her heart."

“I understand now. The one who died wasn’t you, it was that woman in black,” I said to Xiao Huan.

“That’s right, I was terrified at the time. The rest was all your good friend’s idea and he did it. Chen Yuan, you tell us.”

12. Never to be separated

Chen Yuan walked to the sofa and sat down, and I noticed that he was holding a glass of wine in his hand.

Chen Yuan took a sip of wine and slowly said, "That's right, I did everything else. I originally wanted to dispose of the woman's body, but if I just threw it out like that, the police would definitely find out. Besides, the blood in the room couldn't be cleaned up properly, and it would become evidence of murder sooner or later, and Xiao Huan wouldn't be able to get away with it."

"At this moment, I noticed something: the woman's blood and Xiao Huan's blood fell on the floor and actually mixed together without any reaction."

"Xiaoming, I don't know if you remember when I was in school I loved reading detective novels. When I saw this phenomenon, I immediately knew that this woman and Xiaohuan had the same blood type."

"So I came up with a plan. I thought if I made Xiao Huan the one who died here, not only would Xiao Huan not be punished by law, but I would also have a scapegoat ready."

“I’m the one who’s taking the blame, and you can use this opportunity to get Xiao Huan, right?” I looked at Chen Yuan as if I had never met him before.

"Yes, that's what I thought at the time," Chen Yuan readily admitted.

"I first took Xiao Huan to my house and bandaged her wound. Her injury wasn't serious; it was just a minor cut. Then I told her my plan. Of course, I didn't tell her that I wanted to use this opportunity to get her."

Xiao Huan glared angrily at Chen Yuan.

“I told Xiaohuan that I would handle things here, and in a few days I would take her to my hometown for plastic surgery so that there would be no future problems.”

"Then, I went back to Xiaohuan's house and started my plan. I first cleaned up all the places in the house that might have fingerprints, then I cut off the corpse's hands and left fingerprints everywhere in the house. The police station didn't have Xiaohuan's fingerprint records, so when they checked fingerprints in the future, they could only rely on the fingerprints in her room for verification."

Chen Yuan took another sip of wine and slowly continued, "Then I dismembered her body. Boiling her flesh was just a pretext. The main purpose was to boil her head until it was rotten, so that it would be impossible to identify whether it was Xiao Huan's body."

"The most interesting thing is that when you woke up, you saw me chopping up a corpse and were so scared that you went insane, which solved my biggest problem, haha. I originally wanted to leave you speechless and send you to jail, but I didn't expect that you couldn't defend yourself even if you wanted to."

"After cleaning up the scene, I sent Xiao Huan to my hometown for plastic surgery, and then I immediately returned here and reported the case to the police station. You know what happened after that, right?"

"After Xiao Huan came back from plastic surgery, she changed her identity and soon became my girlfriend. I thought she must have given up on you. Unexpectedly, as soon as she saw you, she forgot everything from the past and forgave you again..." Chen Yuan's voice began to tremble.

I looked up at Xiao Huan. She was quietly leaning against me, her familiar fragrance soothing my soul, her soft, long hair brushing against my face...

Suddenly, I felt the wind behind me. I turned around and saw Chen Yuan's contorted face. A flashing knife was aimed straight at my chest. I had no way to dodge...

I suddenly fell to the ground, and all I heard was the sound of a knife tearing through my skin...

Then, everything fell silent.

Xiao Huan's eyes were incredibly clear yet incredibly deep. She looked at me with gentle eyes, while blood flowed down her white dress. The knife was stuck in her chest.

Chen Yuan stood there blankly, staring at the blood gushing from Xiao Huan's chest, his face expressionless.

I scrambled to my feet and hugged Xiao Huan. "Why? Why did you take that knife for me? I'm the one who should die..." I sobbed uncontrollably.

A faint smile will forever remain on Xiao Huan's face; Xiao Huan's smile will forever belong only to me.

I turned around, and Chen Yuan's gaze towards me gradually became unfocused. "Xiao Huan would protect you even if it meant death. I... she never liked me..."

"I brought you out this time hoping we could continue being good friends, but..." Chen Yuan's voice began to falter, "Xiao Huan can't forget her love for you, and I can't forget my hatred for you..."

"I poisoned my own drink just now, intending to die with you, but I ended up killing Xiao Huan instead..."

Chen Yuan's voice gradually faded, and his body finally collapsed to the floor, a trickle of blood flowing from the corner of his mouth...

I held Xiao Huan in my arms, and her singing voice echoed in my ears.

Though we will never see each other again, I will always be by your side. The words I spoke will never change, and we will never be apart...

As the song played, I heard Xiao Huan say those words again: "If I die, I'd rather be eaten by you." Xiao Huan spoke slowly and deliberately, her voice ethereal, as if it came from every corner of the world.

"Being eaten by you is a kind of happiness. At least we are together, and no one can separate us."

Yes, I murmured, "We will never be apart..."

I buried my head in Xiao Huan's body, inhaling her familiar, faint fragrance...

In the kitchen, the water in the pot has boiled...

Story Five: The Cursed City by Mai Jie (The End)

I. Nightmare

"Snap," "Snap."

This is a long, secluded street paved with huge stones. Every step you take on it makes a particularly loud sound, with a hollow echo.

This is a deathly quiet street; there isn't a single person on it—except for me.

However, I always felt that countless eyes were staring at me on this deserted street, and cold sweat broke out on my back.

I want to leave this street, but I can't. Something at the end of this road seems to be drawing me in; it's a huge magnetic field, and I'm pulled by its own magnetism, involuntarily walking forward step by step. It's as if I know the end leads to destruction, yet I still keep moving forward.

...

It was pitch black.

That kind of darkness wasn't just the dead of night; it was a complete absence of light—to put it simply, pitch black. No, that word doesn't even begin to describe it. It was a darkness so profound that even if I put my finger right up to my eye, I couldn't see it; I could only feel it.

That suffocating feeling returned at just the right time.

There was absolutely no air; I couldn't breathe, my lungs felt like they were about to burst. I desperately opened my mouth to breathe, my hands flailing in the air like a drowning person grasping at a last straw.

"Come back! Alidodona! Come back! Alidodona!" A cacophony of voices filled my ears, all saying the same thing, spoken by tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of people at the same time, crashing against my eardrums like a tidal wave.

"Come back! Alidodona! Come back! Alidodona!" One of the voices broke through the noise and went straight into my eardrums, gentle and clear.

Finally, my lungs burst inside my chest. I clutched my chest tightly with my hands, and for a moment I had a crazy urge to tear my chest apart...

"Ah!" I let out a long sigh, woke up from my dream, and stared into the darkness.

I reached for the cigarettes and lighter on the bedside table, put one in my mouth, and lit it. The light from the lighter made my eyes, which had just returned from the deepest darkness, feel a little uncomfortable. I squinted, put out the lighter, and took two deep drags on the lit cigarette.

"I've had enough!" After the smoke swirled in my lungs, I exhaled through my nostrils and yelled viciously at myself in the darkness, "I've had enough! I've had enough! I've fucking had enough!"

After finishing the cigarette, I fumbled for the phone on the bedside table in the dark and dialed Shuiying's number.

"Ring ring...ring ring...ring ring..." The phone kept ringing, but Shuiying wouldn't answer, and I just wouldn't hang up. That brat, she must be having some handsome guy with her tonight, dreaming all sorts of sweet dreams, and doesn't want to answer a boring call like mine. Humph, she won't answer, huh? I'll just keep ringing, I'm going to bother her!

I laughed mischievously in the darkness.