parfum

Chapitre 19

"You are such a smart person!" Feixiao smiled at Shubai.

"So you're here to catch ghosts?" Professor Wang said with a disdainful expression.

"Yes, yes!" Chen Kai quickly stepped forward and said, "This is my friend. He has some skills that others don't have!"

"Sigh!" Professor Wang stared at the ceiling, adjusting his glasses. "The world is going to the dogs! A university professor and graduate student actually hired a Taoist priest to exorcise a ghost!" He seemed genuinely saddened.

"I'm not a Taoist priest!" Fei Xiao protested from the side; he hated Taoist priests with bull-nose noses the most.

"Oh! Right, I forgot!" he said, adjusting his glasses and carefully examining Feixiao. "You look like that little fox who's always following Chen Kai around!"

"Let's not talk about this anymore. Let's go check on that teaching aids room. It'll be a mess again after just one night!" Shubai said, trying to break up the situation when she saw things were getting out of hand.

"Hmph, come with me!" Professor Wang said, walking ahead with his hands behind his back to lead the way. "If it weren't for the need to recruit new students next year, I wouldn't have bothered to find someone to solve this! What's the point of history if it's not mysterious?"

Chen Kai felt that what he said made some sense, but he couldn't agree with it, so he just followed him without saying a word.

Pushing open the door to the teaching aids room, there was indeed chaos again, even more chaotic than before. The bloody handprints that Chen Kai and Shu Bai had reluctantly wiped away the day before had reappeared, and there were even more of them. The entire safe was no longer recognizable as its original color.

“That’s it!” Chen Kai pointed to the safe and showed it to Fei Xiao.

Feixiao frowned, placing one hand on the box, seemingly lost in thought. After a while, she turned to Professor Wang and asked, "What's inside?"

“It’s a mask!” Professor Wang replied. “A student I taught before gave it to the department!”

“This is a bit tricky!” Feixiao said. “Strange things have been happening ever since this mask was placed here, haven’t they?”

“Yes!” said Shubai, who was standing behind, “It’s been like this for two weeks now, every night!”

"Oh!" Feixiao said with a smile, "I understand! Tonight we'll try to see if we can catch that ghost."

Is it really that easy to solve? Chen Kai looked out the window at the sky. There was still a long time before it got dark. Was Fei Xiao being too confident this time?

He glanced at Feixiao, his jade-like face expressionless, leaving no clue as to his thoughts. He could only hope, he could only hope, that things would be resolved smoothly.

Time flies, and it was evening in the blink of an eye. Feixiao had slept all day at home and only came over leisurely at dinner time. It was already getting dark.

"What's your classmate's name?" Fei Xiao asked Chen Kai as they walked.

"Shubai, Murong Shubai!" Chen Kai told him, realizing he had forgotten to introduce them during the day.

"Hehe, a strange name, but not so strange!" Feixiao said with a smile.

Chen Kai looked at him. What had gotten into him today? Why was he acting so strangely? What did he mean by "strange yet not strange"?

As they talked, they arrived at the history department's teaching building, where Shubai and Professor Wang were waiting for them outside.

"All the teachers and students have already gone home!" Shubai said with a smile as she looked at them.

"Wow, how is it so easy?" Chen Kai thought that clearing out everyone was the most difficult part of the whole thing.

"Professor Wang told them that someone was coming to kill cockroaches tonight, so everyone left early!"

Chen Kai looked at Professor Wang; this seemingly mentally challenged old man still had some ideas.

The four of them entered the teaching building and turned on all the lights on the second floor. Since they were going to catch ghosts, it would be too risky to keep the lights off.

Feixiao pushed open the door and walked into the teaching aids room. Turning back to the three people, she said, "Everything tonight is up to me. The ghost will appear!" Feixiao winked at them as she spoke.

After saying that, he walked to the safe. "I'm going to cast an illusion on it first. As long as someone touches it, an illusion will appear!"

"Wait a minute!" Shubai said from the side, "Maybe we should take the things out of there and put them in a safe place!"

“Yes!” Chen Kai agreed. This was indeed a relatively safe method, and he was also very interested in seeing what the mask looked like.

"Should I drive or Professor Wang drive?" Feixiao asked, looking at Professor Wang.

"I, I'll open it!" Professor Wang rubbed his hands together, took out the key from his pocket, carefully checked the password, opened the safe, and took out a brown sandalwood box from inside.

"Is this the mask?" Chen Kai asked, wondering what the legendary mask looked like.

"Great!" Professor Wang said, placing the box on the table. "Would you like to see it?"

Of course, no one disagreed, and the remaining three nodded in agreement.

Professor Wang smiled, a proud smile typical of scholars, and reached out to pry open the box with the golden brass clasp.

Inside, on a red velvet cloth, lay a grotesque mask. Its face was grotesque, with wide-open eyes and inverted eyebrows. The entire mask was red, adorned with painted patterns, and a Sanskrit syllable was inscribed on its forehead. The mask, set against the red velvet, exuded an eerie and terrifying atmosphere.

"This? This is a mask?" Chen Kai pointed at the contents of the box and asked, "Isn't this a ghost face?" He wouldn't even take something like this if it were given to him, yet someone actually wants it?

"That's right, this is the warrior's mask!" Professor Wang said. "There should also be a ghost mask. If I'm not mistaken, the ghost mask should have a blue face!"

"Oh!" Chen Kai responded. In his eyes, both of them looked more like ghosts.

Feixiao took out the mask, walked to the safe, and muttered something to herself. After a while, she turned back to them and said, "Alright, now we can go to another classroom and wait for the ghost who wants the mask to appear!"

"Is it really that simple?" Chen Kai asked him, "Then if we leave, who will look after this mask?"

Feixiao smiled at him, "I cast a 'demon-binding spell' on it. As long as someone touches this safe, the spell will activate automatically, and then we can see the illusions in other rooms too!"

"What kind of fantasy would it be?" Chen Kai asked him. "It wouldn't be one of those eerie and terrifying ones, would it?"

"You'll find out soon enough!" Fei Xiao said, then had Shu Bai open a door far from the teaching aids room. It was a small reception room with a large sofa where one could rest.

"Why is it so far away?" Chen Kai looked at the door of the teaching aids room, which was at least twenty or thirty meters away.

"Hehe!" Feixiao didn't answer. "Let's turn off all the lights in the corridor together!"

"Why me?" Chen Kai wailed, but he didn't dare disobey him, so he could only hang his head and go with him to turn off the lights.

Walking into the corridor, Fei Xiao pressed the light switch and turned to Chen Kai, saying, "My demonic aura is too strong. I'm afraid that real demons won't dare to come out, which is why I chose such a far place!"

"Oh!" Chen Kai seemed to understand something.

With a "snap," Fei Xiao pressed a button, and half the lights in the corridor went out.

“Let’s go over there!” Fei Xiao said, leading Chen Kai to the other side of the corridor.

"Do you know what it is?" Chen Kai asked him as they walked.

Feixiao shook her head and turned to Chen Kai, saying, "The strangest thing about this is that there's no demonic aura!"

"What do you mean?" Chen Kai asked, puzzled.

“There wasn’t a trace of demonic energy left on that safe!” Fei Xiao’s gaze suddenly turned cold and stern. “Do you understand what this means?”

Chen Kai stood there and shook his head. What he said seemed a bit off, but he couldn't figure it out.

"You'll find out soon enough!" Fei Xiao said, pressing the switch, plunging the entire corridor into darkness. Fei Xiao's white figure suddenly became extremely conspicuous.

"Let's go back!" Chen Kai said, trembling. All the lights were turned off, and the darkness added a touch of terror to the long corridor.

The two returned to the room, and Professor Wang and Shubai placed the sandalwood box containing the mask on the coffee table in the reception room, anxiously awaiting what would happen next.

"It's alright!" Feixiao said to them with a smile, "We just need to wait here!" As she spoke, she took the box in her hand and played with it for a few moments.

"Professor Wang, if a ghost were to come and take this mask, what kind of ghost would it be?" he asked with a smile.

"I don't know!" Professor Wang replied, "This mask is probably used to ward off ghosts; it seems impossible for any ghost to want it!"

Feixiao opened the box, revealing a hideous mask inside. The red ghost face seemed to be the color of blood, with wide-open eyes and snow-white fangs, making it very unsettling to look at.

He slammed the lid shut, placed the box on the coffee table, crossed his arms, and leaned his head back on the sofa: "Let's take a break! Who knows what will happen next!"

Chen Kai couldn't calm down and rest. The brown box on the coffee table seemed to exude a terrifying atmosphere in the small room, slowly gripping people's hearts.

Wait, what will happen next? Shu Bai and Professor Wang both looked tense. No one spoke, except for Fei Xiao, who was casually lounging on the sofa.

A deathly silence, a deathly still night.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but Chen Kai couldn't hold on any longer. His eyes became increasingly sore, and his head slowly drooped down. Drowsiness came over him like a tide.

He had just dozed off when he felt something cool and slippery creeping up his trouser leg. He reached out and grabbed it; it was soft, cool, and wet, and he immediately woke up.

Looking again, he realized he was holding a snake, with black skin and red patterns on it.

"Wow! Snakes!" Chen Kai jumped onto the sofa in fright. When he looked down, he saw that there were dozens of snakes swarming around his feet.

"What's going on?" Shubai woke up in fright, her face pale. "How could this be? How could there be so many snakes!"

"It crawled in from outside the door!" Professor Wang pointed to the door. Snakes were still crawling in through the crack in the door; if this continued, they would probably all be eaten by the snakes.

"It's an illusion!" Fei Xiao stood up and said, "Don't be afraid! It's the Demon-Binding Curse activated! Someone touched that safe!"

"What?" Chen Kai stood on the sofa, pointing at the snake on the ground: "These are all illusions? Shouldn't we hurry over and take a look!"

“Good!” Fei Xiao said, stepping on the snakes scattered on the ground and pulling open the door handle. “Let’s go take a look! Shu Bai and Professor Wang are here watching the masks!”

"I'm going too!" Professor Wang shouted. "I've never seen a ghost before! I don't believe in this nonsense!"

The three of them rushed out of the room, and when they looked down into the corridor, they found it teeming with snakes, many times more than inside the room, making it impossible to know where to even step.

"It's alright!" Fei Xiao said to them, "This snake won't bite. As long as you keep your mind clear, you won't see anything!"

"Then let's run forward!" Professor Wang said from behind, hunched over. "We'll run to the teaching aids room in one go!" After saying that, he had already started running ahead, his old legs swaying.

Chen Kai and Fei Xiao followed behind him. The road, which was only a few dozen meters long, now seemed so long. The soft bodies of the snakes were being stepped on, giving them a nauseating feeling.

Is this really an illusion? It's too real! Before Chen Kai could finish thinking, the door to the teaching aids room was already in front of him.

Feixiao kicked open the door. "What's there?" "What did you catch?" Professor Wang and Chen Kai shouted together, vying to see inside.

The classroom was spotless, just as it had been when they left. There wasn't even a snake in the corridor. Where were the ghosts?

"What? What's going on?" Chen Kai asked. Where did these snakes come from? Aren't snakes only found when ghosts or monsters come into contact with safes?

"Hehehe!" Feixiao seemed to have expected this all along, showing no surprise whatsoever! "We'll find out what ghosts and monsters are when we get back to that conference room?"

"What does this mean?" Professor Wang asked him.

"You'll find out soon enough!" Fei Xiao winked at them, walked into the corridor, stretched out a hand, and shouted, "Back off!" All the snakes disappeared in an instant; it really was an illusion.

"Could it be? Could it be that you deliberately created these snakes?" Chen Kai stared at the clean corridor, which was still pitch black, without a trace of snakes.

“Not bad!” Feixiao said as she walked. “I didn’t put any curses on the safe at all!”

"Then where did you cast the curse?" Chen Kai had a vague sense of unease. This was clearly a game of wits, not some kind of ghost-catching game.

As Feixiao spoke, she reached out and pushed open the conference room door, saying, "The real curse was placed on that mask!"

Chen Kai and Professor Wang followed behind him. There were no more snakes in the conference room. Shu Bai sat alone on the sofa, one hand in the sandalwood box, her face pale, and beads of sweat rolled down her forehead.

"What's wrong?" Chen Kai was startled when he saw her face.

"In this box, in the box..." Shubai stared at the three people outside the door, her face contorted and distorted, showing no trace of her beauty.

"There's a snake in the box, right?" Fei Xiao looked at her with a smile. "Nothing would have happened if you hadn't touched that mask! But you did anyway!"