Ghost Stories

Chapter 38

Lin Feng said, "He is a genuine zombie, and his abilities are much stronger than those zombies that have been bitten or infected with zombie poison. He can survive without blood; he only needs to absorb moonlight and yin energy."

Qiqi said, "I didn't realize that you, a half-baked Taoist priest, actually know quite a lot!"

Lin Feng said smugly, "You didn't just find out today, did you?"

As the two chatted and laughed, Lin Feng reached the intersection leading to his home. After waving goodbye to Qi Qi, he turned and went home.

As soon as she entered the door, Xiao Jie jumped up from the sofa and said, "You're back so early? Didn't you go on a date with your ghost sister?"

Lin Feng asked in astonishment, "Where did this female ghost sister come from?"

Xiao Jie twisted Lin Feng's ear and said, "Still not admitting it? Qi Qi told me about that female ghost sister named Xiao Xue, and you still want to deny it?"

Lin Feng screamed as his ear was twisted, "No, no! Be gentle! Ouch, be gentle, my ear's going to fall off! It's murder!"

Xiao Jie snorted and said, "I'll let you off this time, but if I catch you doing something wrong, I don't care if it's a man or a ghost, or whether you did it or he did, I'll just 'snip' it off!"

Lin Feng touched his ear and said, "Isn't that cruel? Besides, I didn't do anything, let alone go on a date!"

Xiao Jie kicked Lin Feng in the butt and said, "Hmph, come here and let me see how your arm injury is. I don't want to sleep with a zombie. Who knows when it will get up and chew up my feet and fingers one by one!"

Lin Feng took off his coat and sweater, rolled up his sleeves to reveal his bandaged wound.

Xiao Jie glared at me and said, "Take off your shirt too, and stop pretending to be innocent!"

Lin Feng gave a wry smile and took off his shirt. Xiao Jie was becoming increasingly violent, but he knew it was her way of showing her love for him. Xiao Jie couldn't stop him from doing such dangerous work, so she used this method to relieve her stress. Although Lin Feng didn't think his job was dangerous—every job has its risks, even crossing the street could result in being hit and killed by an out-of-control car—he knew that all jobs have inherent dangers.

Xiao Jie's occasional wildness made him feel the warmth and happiness of home. That faint sweetness was just right; any more would be too cloying, and any less would be too bland.

Sometimes he truly felt he owed Xiao Jie Jie too much. He risked his life every day, while she worried about him constantly. Although she didn't show it, Lin Feng could sense it. Moreover, he rarely took Xiao Jie Jie out to see a movie or buy clothes. Yet, Xiao Jie Jie never complained or showed any dissatisfaction in front of him. What was wrong with letting her vent a little?

Xiao Jie removed the bandages from Lin Feng's arm layer by layer, revealing four deep wounds underneath. She sighed with heartache, saying, "Look, they're all so deep." She then went to get Yunnan Baiyao (a traditional Chinese medicine) and gauze, cleaned the wounds with water, gently applied the medicine, and carefully wrapped them with new gauze.

After doing all that, Xiao Jie said, "Alright, be careful from now on. Let Qi Qi deal with those weird and strange things as much as possible. She's immortal and much more powerful than you!"

Lin Feng said, "The problem is that the guy attacked me! Besides, Qiqi has always taken good care of me. If it weren't for her, you would have been a widow several times over!"

Kiki roared, "How dare you say that? You've been provoking powerful things from the start, and now you've even brought out zombies! You think you're so capable? If it weren't for my sake, I wouldn't be helping you! Besides, we're not even married yet, hmph, I can fire you anytime!"

Lin Feng said, "Yes, yes, yes, I was wrong, okay?"

After saying that, he grabbed Xiao Jie Jie and kissed her. Xiao Jie Jie weakly pounded on Lin Feng's shoulder, but soon she was deeply immersed in it.

Before long, the room was filled with spring, needless to say.

Curled up in Lin Feng's arms, Xiao Jie was sleeping like a kitten. Afraid of waking her, Lin Feng gently picked her up and placed her on the bed in the bedroom.

Looking at Xiao Jie's adorable face, Lin Feng secretly vowed in his heart, "I will definitely give you a ring and make you my bride!"

He kissed Xiao Jie on the forehead, then left the room and went to sleep on the sofa.

What will tomorrow bring? Lin Feng didn't want to think about it. He only hoped that the woman he loved could lean happily in his arms. But his job didn't allow him to do that. Or perhaps he should consider whether he should focus on teaching those lively and playful college students at the school, instead of facing eerie ghosts and monsters every time.

Lost in thought, he gradually drifted off to sleep. In his dream, he placed a dazzling ring on Xiao Jie Jie's finger, and Xiao Jie Jie, looking blissfully happy in her wedding dress, nestled in his arms.

Book 3, Ghostly Tales, Chapter 22: The Scarf

The first to third floors of the "Gravity Building" house the city's largest supermarket. A dazzling array of goods fills the space. This supermarket, invested in by "Gravity" company, has been a popular shopping destination for locals since its opening, maintaining its leading position in the supermarket industry for three consecutive years and already showing signs of dominance.

Several girls excitedly strolled around the supermarket, feasting their eyes on the various exquisite goods.

Upon arriving at the women's clothing section, their eyes were glued to the beautiful clothes on the shelves. They practically wanted to grab an AK-47—the kind of gun terrorists use worldwide—and yell "Robbery!" before looting everything and wearing it all. (Everyone knows about the AK-47, the weapon of choice for terrorists, but probably doesn't know it's made in China! *chuckles* Great value for money—absolutely essential for murder and robbery.)

However, despite having this idea, they could only think about it; the price tags were too prohibitive for them. They could only reluctantly and slowly move on.

Upon seeing a shelf inside, one of the girls exclaimed, "What a beautiful scarf! Come and look!"

Several other girls gathered around, and one of them asked, "Xiaomei, is this the only scarf like this? Do you have any others?"

Xiaomei said, "There's only this one, I didn't see any others!"

Another girl stroked the scarf and said, "What exquisite weaving! The design is also very beautiful. It feels so soft and delicate. It must be so warm to wear!"

Xiaomei clutched the scarf tightly and said, "I found it first, so none of you are allowed to take it from me!"

The other girls exclaimed regretfully, "Wow, you're so lucky! How come I didn't notice?"

Xiaomei flipped through the price tags again and almost jumped up with joy, saying, "It's so cheap, only forty-four yuan!" She said this with a happy expression on her face.

This remark prompted several girls to sigh and lament their bad luck.

Xiaomei excitedly said to the sales assistant, "Could you please help me pack this up?"

The sales assistant paused for a moment when she saw the scarf in Xiaomei's hand, then gave a professional smile and said, "Okay, no problem!" She deftly took out a packaging bag, put the scarf in it, and handed it to Xiaomei.

Amidst the envious glances of her friends, Xiaomei left the women's clothing department. The sales assistant muttered to herself in surprise, "How strange, how come there's a red scarf? It wasn't there just a moment ago!"

Upon returning to school, Xiaomei immediately wrapped her scarf around her neck as soon as she entered her dormitory. The red scarf paired with a red knee-length coat, black skinny jeans, and red ankle boots, along with a red cap with a slanted brim, made Xiaomei's already outstanding looks even more beautiful and charming.

The exclamations of admiration and envy from her roommates greatly satisfied Xiaomei's vanity. Amidst laughter and playful banter, Xiaomei happily went to find her boyfriend, Fang Yuan.

Upon seeing him, Fang Yuan was greatly impressed, considering him an extraordinary talent. The two went out for dinner together, then went to see a movie, returning home after 10 PM.

Upon arriving at the dormitory, Xiaomei felt extremely tired as soon as she took off her scarf. After quickly washing herself, she hurriedly slipped into bed and lay down.

On ordinary days, at this time of day, the sisters would naturally be playing and joking around, with Xiaomei being the most active. But today, for some reason, she felt sleepy and tired, probably because she had been shopping for too long during the day. As soon as she touched the bed, Xiaomei fell asleep, breathing heavily and evenly.

The next day, Xiaomei slept until broad daylight before getting up. When she looked at the clock, her first class had already passed. She secretly resented her roommates for not waking her up.

After getting up and tidying herself up, Xiaomei looked in the mirror and was startled to see that she had two obvious dark circles under her eyes. Xiaomei wondered to herself, how could she have such heavy dark circles when she went to bed early yesterday? But she didn't have time to think about why, she put on a light layer of makeup and started getting dressed.

After getting dressed and putting on her scarf, Xiaomei twirled twice in front of the mirror, then proudly raised two fingers in a victory sign. Even with the scarf on, she still looked radiant and captivating; you couldn't tell she had dark circles under her eyes at all.

Another day passed, and Xiaomei, like a butterfly in the cold winter, attracted the attention of countless male students at the university. The science and engineering students, in particular, were practically going crazy. How come they hadn't noticed such a beautiful girl in the humanities department before? Were they blind? When they saw Xiaomei strutting around with her boyfriend, all the boys were filled with regret, beating their chests in despair. Why hadn't they made their move first? Now they could only watch helplessly as others won the heart of their beauty, practically weeping and wailing.

But once Xiaomei returned to her dorm, she felt drowsy and exhausted as soon as she took off her scarf, falling asleep the moment her head hit the bed. In the morning, she woke up with the usual dark circles under her eyes, and her complexion looked even worse. But as soon as she put the scarf back on, she instantly became radiant, glowing, and irresistibly charming.

A few days later, the girls in the dormitory felt strange. For the past few days, Xiaomei would take off her clothes and fall asleep as soon as she came back, and it would take her a long time to wake up in the morning. They wondered if she was sick.

So when Xiaomei came back that day, before she even had a chance to take off her coat, her roommate Xiaolei grabbed her and said, "Xiaomei, what's wrong with you lately? You're sleeping so much, are you not feeling well?"

Xiaomei said blankly, "No! I look perfectly fine."

Xiao Lei carefully examined Xiao Mei and saw that she did indeed look energetic and vibrant, and there was something inexplicable about her compared to before. She also found it strange and asked, "Then why are you so sleepy?"

Xiaomei playfully pinched Xiaolei's nose and said, "Alright, stop being so suspicious. Don't worry about nothing!" After saying that, she took off her coat, washed up quickly, and went to bed.

Xiao Lei felt something was off about Xiao Mei's behavior, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it, so she went to bed with a puzzled look on her face.

Book 3, Ghostly Tales, Chapter 23: The Scarf (2)

Xiao Lei woke up at eight in the morning. Years of campus life had instilled in her a very regular sleep schedule. As a liberal arts student, she was considered quite diligent. While other girls were busy dating, she was studying. While other girls were watching movies, she was attending evening self-study sessions. She was always the first one up in the dorm every day, and only when it was almost time would she wake up the other girls who were overly in love. She watched them hurriedly wash their faces, put on makeup, and then rush to class with their books, whispering sweet nothings to their crushes.

Every time she saw her sisters excitedly and busily getting ready, she felt a surge of energy. Xiaomei was the one she loved the most among them. After all, she was the oldest in the dorm, and Xiaomei was the youngest.

She put on her clothes and quickly combed her hair. She went to Xiaomei's bedside to wake her up first, because she couldn't let Xiaomei get up so late every day, making her late for school every day.

Approaching Xiaomei's bedside, Xiaolei suddenly smelled a odor that made her dizzy. It was blood. She had always been afraid of blood and was extremely sensitive to its smell. This condition had caused her no end of trouble since childhood. Even when her father was killing a chicken, he had to keep it hidden from her, otherwise, seeing it would make her feel completely exposed and faint.

Xiao Lei felt a pang of panic; she didn't know what had happened to Xiao Mei. She usually didn't turn on the light when she got up, afraid of disturbing her roommates. In the darkness, she couldn't see Xiao Mei's face clearly, only vaguely discernible that Xiao Mei was sleeping with her face turned inwards towards the wall.

She quickly turned on the light and pulled back Xiaomei's curtain. She shook Xiaomei several times, saying, "Xiaomei, wake up, Xiaomei."

Seeing that Xiaomei didn't react, she forcefully turned Xiaomei's shoulder. After seeing Xiaomei's face clearly, she immediately let out a terrifying scream, and then collapsed against the wall with a thud.

The girls in the dormitory were all woken up by the scream. Rubbing their eyes, they asked, "What happened?" When they saw that Xiao Lei had fallen to the ground, they all rushed out of bed to help her up.

In the chaos, a girl felt something wet and sticky under her feet. Looking down, she saw a large pool of blood. She cried out, "Ouch! Dong'er, where did all this blood come from? Could it be Xiao Lei's?"

Dong'er looked and saw bloodstains by Xiaomei's bedside, with blood still dripping from the bed. She quickly pulled back Xiaomei's curtain and saw that Xiaomei's eyes were wide open, her mouth was agape, her face was frighteningly yellow, and there was a bloody gash on her throat from which blood was flowing.

The wound looked like it had been bitten by something, and there were still teeth marks.

Upon seeing this, Dong'er and the girl fainted without uttering a sound.

When the three woke up, they were still in shock. Xiao Lei, who woke up first, leaned against the corner of the wall, trembling and sobbing. Dong'er and Lili, on the other hand, immediately took out their phones to call the police.

But when Dong'er got up, she found that the bloodstains under the bed were gone, and her feet were clean, without a trace of blood.

The two remained silent for a while, calming Xiao Lei down. They looked at the curtain hanging from Xiao Mei's bed with great fear, neither of them having the courage to lift it up.

Once Xiao Lei calmed down, she could no longer smell the blood, which helped clear her confused mind. As long as there was no blood, she was quite brave.

After thinking it over three times, Xiao Lei finally mustered up her courage and walked to Xiao Mei's bedside, pulling back the curtain that she hadn't fully opened earlier.

Xiaomei's face was revealed, and that face shocked the three of them once again. There was no blood, no wounds. Her entire face was a waxy yellow, her eyes were deeply sunken, her cheeks were extremely thin, and her slightly parted lips were completely bloodless. At first glance, she looked like a skeleton.

Xiao Lei gently nudged Xiao Mei and said, "Xiao Mei."

Xiao Mei didn't react. Xiao Lei put her hand under Xiao Mei's nose and said in a trembling voice to Dong'er and Lili, "She...she's dead."

Xiaomei's death was diagnosed as sudden cardiac arrest by the hospital, but no one could explain why her face was so thin, like a skeleton, before she died.

When Xiaomei's family arrived, they took away all her belongings, leaving only the red scarf.

The dormitory felt a bit deserted without Xiaomei. Without Xiaomei, who used to be as lively and energetic as a butterfly flitting about, everyone felt something was missing. Xiaomei's death weighed heavily on their hearts like a large stone.

Back in her dorm, Dong'er turned on the light. These past few days, her roommates had been coming home late and trying to avoid being alone in the dorm. She wouldn't have come back so early today if she hadn't had nowhere else to go; being alone in the dorm always felt eerie.

After reading for a while, Dong'er became restless and her eyes suddenly fell on the red scarf.

Dong'er put down her book, picked up the scarf, and gently stroked it. It seemed to still retain Xiaomei's body temperature. A warm feeling spread from her fingertips throughout her body.

Dong'er walked to the mirror and gently wrapped the scarf around her neck. With her ordinary yet adorable appearance, Dong'er looked like an elf descended to earth in the mirror. Her white oversized sweater, vintage-style distressed jeans, and the bright red scarf around her neck made her rosy cheeks even more endearing. Her bright black eyes were incredibly lively; from any angle, she was a cute little fairy.

Touching the scarf around her neck, Dong'er was overcome with grief. To be honest, she felt that Xiaomei's death was very suspicious. The inexplicable mental failure, the skeletal face before her death, had lingered in her mind countless times.

Dong'er took off her scarf and put it away, suddenly feeling a little sleepy. She glanced at her watch; it was only a little past nine o'clock. Normally, she was a notorious night owl. Even after the lights were off, she would light candles and read "Poor Grandma's Chatter" novels, reading them until she was crying her eyes out. Today, she was already sleepy at just nine o'clock.

Book 3, Ghostly Tales, Chapter 24: The Scarf (3)

Xiao Lei and Lili returned close to midnight. Like Dong'er, they had been staying late to return to their dorms since Xiao Mei's mysterious death, unless there was something special going on. The academic atmosphere in the School of Literature was very strong, and the teaching buildings generally stayed open quite late. This was one of the reasons why the university was famous in the province; it was said that several senior students had published books before graduation and made a fortune, which made the junior students quite envious.

When they entered the dormitory, Xiao Lei walked ahead and saw a dark shadow flickering by the window as soon as she opened the door. Neither Xiao Lei nor Lili paid any attention; their eyes were quite tired after reading all night, and they assumed it was just a coat. Just like the girl in the next dormitory, who hung her bra and underwear on the window! Hanging a coat wasn't unusual at all.

But when Lili turned on the light, the two of them realized it was Dong'er. She had tied the scarf Xiaomei was wearing to the water pipe running through the dormitory window, tucking her pale neck inside, her tongue already sticking out slightly. The scarf was constricting her neck, making her face flushed and red.

Xiao Lei screamed first, then realized this wasn't the time to panic. She quickly ran over, pulled the table in the center of the dormitory to the window, stood on it, and hugged Dong'er. Lili also realized what was happening, and the two of them together put Dong'er down.

Dong'er was still breathing faintly.

After some first aid, Dong'er started coughing violently. She slowly opened her eyes and saw Xiao Lei and Lili, then burst into tears.

Xiao Lei and Lili both knew that Dong'er was usually quirky and clever, but also very strong-willed, and wouldn't easily think of suicide. Moreover, considering Xiao Mei's death, their intuition told them that this wasn't Dong'er's intention.

Sure enough, Dong'er exclaimed in horror, "Quickly throw away the scarf, quickly throw it away!"

Xiao Lei was also a little panicked and said, "Dong'er, calm down, we're all here, don't be afraid, nothing will happen, calm down!"