Série Histoires de Fantômes 10

Chapitre 2

"A self-defense item?" My curiosity was successfully piqued. "Are you going to try to imitate Uncle Li's tricks, throwing things out and hooking them back after they leave your hand?" Ye Min—a kung fu girl? I was highly skeptical.

Ye Min picked up the necklace and started shaking it from side to side, saying to me in a threatening tone, "It can make you faint, and then you'll open your heart to me."

Is that so?

Seeing her extremely arrogant gaze, I curled my lip and stared at the coin swinging back and forth in front of me. I refused to believe it. But who knew that after staring at it swinging back and forth a few times, my vision went black, and I collapsed onto the table with a "thump".

"What do you want to do to me?" Ye Min stared wide-eyed, leaning closer to get a better look at me, when I suddenly sprang up and shouted, startling her so much she almost screamed. I clutched my stomach and laughed for a while before asking her with tears in my eyes, "Is this the effect you wanted? Hahahaha..." Looking at the extremely embarrassed Ye Min, I turned to call the rest of us, who had almost finished eating, to get in the car, ready to leave. Before slipping into the car, I laughed for a while longer.

What era are we living in? Why are we still into this?

When I boarded the train, I smelled a strange odor in the carriage, somewhat like verdigris, faint yet present. I wasn't sure, so I asked a few people around me, but none of them smelled anything. I have mild rhinitis, and my nose might be acting up again, so I didn't think much of it.

While driving

A group of people sat listlessly in the car, discussing nothing but work-related topics, or flattering each other with phrases like "your family is like this, mine is like that." I couldn't take it anymore, so I suggested they tell me some exciting and new stories.

Section 11: Embarking on a Ghostly Journey (9)

After I suggested it, everyone's eyes lit up: "Yes, yes, let's tell ghost stories."

As soon as I saw it, it worked! These upright people are not only interested in gossip news, but also find bizarre and terrifying ghost stories very appealing.

Since it was my suggestion, I had to start. So I cleared my throat, gripped the steering wheel, and began to ramble: "Okay, I'll start with one. This one's about a high school girl, so be prepared. There's this high school girl named Xiaotong..."

The little girl hadn't been sleeping well lately. Her mother noticed that every morning when she woke up, she looked listless, with dark circles under her dull eyes. She felt heartbroken for her daughter.

At first, when faced with her mother's incessant questioning, Xiaotong always avoided the topic, only claiming that she occasionally stayed up late to study. This was understandable, as high school coursework was exceptionally heavy. But Xiaotong knew that this lie couldn't last long; if she continued like that every night, she would eventually go crazy.

She couldn't tell her mother that strange things were happening in her room every night.

"It's a terrifying and strange thing. Just how terrifying is it?" I deliberately kept them in suspense, lowering my voice to a whisper and making my tone sound tremble slightly.

The earliest time was probably the 3rd of last month, but my tired brain can't remember exactly. That night, Xiaotong finished her homework as usual and went to bed. In the middle of the night, she vaguely felt something in the dark room, on the floor next to her bed. The feeling was very real and strong, and then she heard a very faint sound.

"Click...click..."

The sound was like…like someone chewing on something! Xiaotong shuddered! But she quickly calmed down, thinking it might be a hallucination caused by the pressure of studying, or if it was real, it was probably just some kind of rat or something else causing the disturbance. She only dared to think this way, not daring to get out of bed to confirm. She felt the feeling and sound were very close to her.

Although she felt a bit depressed that night, it didn't have a big impact on her. She was nervous for a while but then fell asleep again and slept soundly until dawn.

A bright and clear morning is a great pleasure for someone with a regular sleep schedule, and Xiaotong thought so too, but that didn't apply to this day. When she got up in the morning, she saw some things on the floor, and these things were very different.

Section 12: Embarking on a Ghostly Journey (10)

On the smooth floor beside the bed, a very awkward pattern suddenly appeared. It was not hard to recognize that the shape was an English letter, which she certainly recognized.

On the ground is an "S"—a letter made up of sunflower seed shells.

The moment she caught a glimpse of it, Xiaotong froze. She stared at the "S" for a long, long time, until she broke out in a cold sweat. She suddenly recalled the incredibly real feeling and the "crunching" sound she had when she was sleeping last night... Obviously, it was impossible for a mouse to eat sunflower seeds and then arrange them into a letter.

As she broke out in a cold sweat, she was unaware that a series of strange and unexpected events were about to unfold.

When Xiaotong first saw the letter, she forced herself to calm down by explaining it away as if a window or door wasn't closed properly, and quickly cleaned up the incredibly annoying sunflower seed shells scattered on the floor. From the moment she woke up until she went to school, she was in a state of unease. Fortunately, high school studies were extremely intense and demanding; all she did all day was study, study, study, and more study. She almost forgot who she was. When she finished her homework and was about to turn off the lamp to rest, she remembered the blurry thing, the clicking sound, and that menacing letter "S." She nervously turned her head to look at the floor, then forcefully forced herself to turn her head away again.

The floor was empty.

But she wasn't entirely at ease, so she carefully checked the entire room several times, including locking the doors and windows multiple times. Only after confirming everything was alright did she feel relieved.

Looks like I can finally get a good night's sleep tonight, she thought.

But she was wrong! In the dead of night, the chilling clicking sound rang out again! This jolted Xiaotong awake from her dream of getting into a prestigious university. This time, she found the sound even clearer; this time, she could even clearly feel her heart pounding and…

In the dark room, by her bedside, people were cracking those damn sunflower seeds!

The overwhelming fear nearly drove her to the brink of collapse, yet she only dared to scream and howl hysterically in her mind. Heaven knows how she endured that night; the clicking sound beside the bed continued. Like a corpse long dead, tears welled in her eyes, she lay stiffly on the bed, too afraid to move. She couldn't see anything in the darkness above the ceiling, but even so, she tried her best to keep her eyes wide open, as wide as she could.

Section 13: Embarking on a Ghostly Journey (11)

She didn't know what she had done wrong.

The long night was about to pass, and dawn finally arrived. Only when she was sure that the voice had disappeared and felt that the "person" had left did she recover from her stiff state, and then fainted again.

From that day on, her mother began urging her to get up every day. From then on, this strange thing repeated itself every morning and night. The little girl stayed up in fear every night, and every morning she would faint on the sheets soaked with sweat and tears, and then wake up to her mother's short knock on the door, staring blankly at the letters on the floor for a while.

This happens every day; it's worse than death.

Even so, Xiaotong quietly swept up the sunflower seed shells herself. She dared not tell her mother, because her mother suffered from mild schizophrenia; she couldn't move out either, since her mother had brought her from their rural village all the way to the provincial capital to get her into university, and they were now living in this dilapidated rented room—in other words, she had nowhere to go; she certainly couldn't tell her classmates, because she knew they would mercilessly ridicule and mock her. What saddened her even more was that she had no friends whatsoever.

Gradually, looking at her reflection in the mirror—bloodshot eyes and a ghostly appearance—Xiaotong began to break down. Not only did her grades plummet, but her personality also changed drastically; she became irritable and restless, frequently throwing things, arguing with classmates, and even starting to self-harm. She felt that only in this way could she feel a little better, yet she still feared the dark.

This comfort lasted for six weeks, until one noon when the mother discovered the child hiding in the bathroom, frantically scratching his arm with a pen. The child only calmed down after the mother, in despair, fell ill and was hospitalized.

She realized that she should probably do something.

On another bright and sunny morning, the rising sun cast a soft glow that shone through the lush green ivy covering the wall, dappling the "S" on the floor. Suddenly, the little boy had a brilliant idea.

For the past few dozen days and nights, she had tried to turn her head to see clearly the "person" eating sunflower seeds, but she had never succeeded. Each time, the clicking sound of a camera, piercing her soul, would render her immobile. She thought that if she could see the truth, it would be crucial in helping her. So, she thought of a hidden camera.

Section 14: Embarking on a Ghostly Journey (12)

By this time, the carriage was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Seeing how attentively everyone was listening, I quickly adjusted my tone and continued speaking in a relaxed manner.

If she could just install it on the ceiling, everything would be clear overnight, and she and her mother could return to their previous lives. She could also pull herself together to face the college entrance exam in a few months. But…

She remembered something very important: she didn't have the money to buy that expensive hidden camera! What should she do? She frantically pulled at her hair. Suddenly, a brilliant idea struck her!

Around midnight, Xiaotong walked nervously into an electronics store. It was a midsummer midnight, and she was wearing a very thick coat. As expected, the shop owner looked tired as closing time approached; everyone gets tired at the end of the day, right?

Because it was her first time, the more Xiaotong tried to appear calm, the more nervous she became, wandering aimlessly around the empty shop. The shop owner was an old man, and of course he recognized the girl who lived only two streets away from his shop. She had passed by him countless times every day on her way to and from school.

When it was time, the old man smiled and didn't urge the girl. He just said to her, "Girl, you can look around as you like now. I'll close the main gate and we'll go out through the back door in a little while. But you can't stay in the shop anymore. You have to go back and rest so you'll have energy for the next day."

The young girl nodded mechanically to the old man's kind, hearty laughter. As he turned to lock the door, she slipped a hidden camera into her coat pocket. She was a little flustered, but also very happy, because she had succeeded.

But such luck and smooth sailing are rare in this world. In his haste to leave through the back door, the child tripped over the threshold and fell hard to the ground. Worse still, the things in his pockets fell out.

The old man never imagined that this seemingly quiet and shy girl was actually a pickpocket. But what he didn't expect was that during their struggle, she pulled out a pen and stabbed him in the abdomen. Even as he breathed his last, he never forgot her bloodshot eyes.

The little girl practically ran all the way home. The old man tried to stop her; perhaps he was in cahoots with the guy eating sunflower seeds by her bedside. Thinking of this, she gritted her teeth in resentment.

Section 15: Embarking on a Ghostly Journey (13)

But she didn't realize that she had already made a big mistake.

Once home, she rushed into her room without even washing her hands, setting up a hidden camera. The thought of escaping this nightmarish life the next morning made her hum a tune. That night, the sounds and sensations remained the same, but she slept exceptionally soundly and peacefully—a feeling she hadn't experienced in a long time. She eagerly awaited the first rays of dawn.

That night, Xiaotong had a dream. She dreamt that she held that tiny digital device, transformed into a champion of justice, and exposed the mastermind behind everything. Her classmates and teachers looked on with envy and admiration, the police praised her for being incredibly clever, like Sherlock Holmes, and the school was astonished, directly recommending her to a prestigious university…

The jarring alarm clock rang, and Xiaotong jumped out of bed with a start. She ripped the machine off the floor and rushed to the dilapidated television in the house without even looking at the things on the floor. She was somewhat agitated, and with trembling, bloodstained hands, she fiddled with it for a long time before finally connecting it. After hesitating for half a second, she took a deep breath and turned on the television screen.

The image on the screen gradually stabilized from a chaotic, static-like display, and the picture became clearer. She could see it! A bright smile spread across her face. Everything on it was familiar to her. Last night, she had deliberately left the bedside lamp on, only dimming the light considerably; now it seemed like a wise move. The dimly lit image on the screen showed her bed and the important floorboards beside it.

The machine recorded for over seven hours, but Xiaotong didn't find it long at all. She held her breath, suppressing her racing heartbeat, and watched slowly, second by second… On the screen, she was asleep, kicking off the covers in bed, tossing and turning, occasionally humming softly, and sometimes scratching her head… Everything seemed so normal and peaceful. Until the recording reached three hours and forty-seven minutes…

My voice started to get a little inappropriate again as the story progressed. In the final part, I followed the usual tricks and techniques of ghost story masters, emphasizing my words in a clichéd way. The audience's brows furrowed slightly. Okay, here comes the exciting part…

After pausing for about a second and a half, I deliberately swallowed and whispered again—

It was finally about to appear! Xiaotong practically pressed her entire face against the television screen, but quickly, her smile froze, replaced by a look of utter terror! A distorted terror! She clearly saw herself in the video, suddenly sitting up in bed! The camera wasn't far away; she could vaguely see her expression—it was expressionless. After sitting on the bed for nearly ten minutes, expressionless, Xiaotong slowly stood up. She got out of bed, took off her pajamas, tied up her disheveled hair, and stood there, frozen.

Section 16: Embarking on a Ghostly Journey (14)

What's this?!

Xiaotong could hardly believe her eyes. Who was that? Was that herself? How could this be?! She felt a little dizzy. Just then, the version of herself in the video started moving again. She saw herself slowly walk to the desk, reach into the bottom compartment of the desk, and in a moment, pull out a handful of things. Upon seeing that thing, Xiaotong collapsed to the floor.

She saw that she was holding a handful of sunflower seeds in her hand.

The little girl was utterly terrified when she watched the video. She never dreamed that the person leisurely eating sunflower seeds on the floor, slowly and carefully chewing them one by one, and then meticulously arranging the remaining shells on the floor... was actually herself! And on the floor in the video, a striking capital letter "S" appeared once again!

I suddenly shut my mouth and let out two malicious laughs.

When she saw "herself" on the screen slowly putting on her clothes, letting her hair down, going back to bed in a cold sweat, tears streaming down her face, and convulsing, the little girl's mind went completely blank. She couldn't accept what she was seeing; her mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. At that moment...

squeak--

Taking advantage of everyone's tense and unprepared state, I slammed on the brakes, bringing the X5 to an abrupt stop. At the same time, I shouted, "The door suddenly opened!"

As a result, screams of terror, one louder than the last, echoed from inside the carriage.

I laughed so hard I cried.

Seeing the pale faces of the group, I couldn't help but slap my thigh and burst into laughter. Only then did they realize they'd been tricked, and they complained that I'd gone too far, even using a large prop like a BMW. Everyone shouted that I'd cheated.

"Are you kidding me? This is supposed to be a horror story? This is practically a case of insanity!" Lin Pang grumbled, trying his best to save face. Horse Face also feigned composure, sighing, "It's...it's just a sleepwalking story! Why make it so exaggerated? But...the door suddenly rang...what happened?"

Hey, you little devils! I didn't want to say it outright, but when I saw everyone's faces filled with expressions that said "I don't know if I'll be sad for a week after this," I couldn't help myself. "Alright, alright, I won't torture you anymore. Of course, if the doorbell rings, someone's coming."

Section 17: The Mysterious Ancient Architectural Complex (1)

"Who?" Everyone exclaimed in surprise. "Could it be that old man's lingering ghost coming to claim our lives?"

"Please, stop being so cute, okay? There aren't that many ghosts! When a murder happens, someone has to investigate, right? Who would investigate? The police are outside, of course! Hahahaha..." I laughed loudly, hehe, that's the effect I wanted. Who dares to disagree? Let me stand up and say something too.

When I restarted the car and we started wobbling along again, everyone was racking their brains trying to figure out how to outrun me. That's when Ye Min spoke up: "Let me tell you a legend about a flower." Inspired by the atmosphere, her eyes sparkled with excitement.

"Okay." Everyone raised their hands in agreement. I gripped the steering wheel approvingly and said, "Hmm... girls should talk about this kind of thing." Ye Min was about to start when I changed the subject: "Is it the kind of gory horror story with flying flesh and torn pieces? Girls these days like that, right?"

"No, that's not it." Ye Min denied my guess and said to all of us seriously that the legend she was going to tell was a sad and tragic love story.

Oh dear, the word I can't stand the most is sadness.

Chapter Two: The Mysterious Ancient Architectural Complex

"Oh? We're in Naniso territory now." The horse-faced man suddenly blurted out, nearly scaring me half to death. Still shaken, I glanced at the roadside and saw a large sign that had appeared out of nowhere—Niso Hill.

1. Places not included in the plan

2 Wrong Decisions

3 Ink Splash Murals

Chapter Two: The Mysterious Ancient Architectural Complex

1. Places not included in the plan

I had told Ye Min I hated hearing stories like that, but she completely ignored me and started talking non-stop about tales and legends…

Have you ever heard of a flower called "Manjusaka"? It transcends the three realms and is outside the five elements, growing on the other side of the Weak Water, stemless and leafless, a vibrant crimson. It is also considered the flower that guides souls across the Sanzu River. Legend says its fragrance has the magical power to awaken the memories of the deceased. On the road to the underworld, they are the only scenery, blooming in vast quantities, appearing from afar like a carpet of blood. Therefore, the road to the underworld is also known as the "Road of Fire" because of these fiery red flowers, and people follow the guidance of these flowers to the hellish realm.

Section 18: The Mysterious Ancient Architectural Complex (2)

In reality, this flower is said to grow mostly in fields, along riverbanks, and in cemeteries, hence its alternative name, "Dead Man's Flower." In autumn, it blooms with eerily vibrant, almost blackish-red flowers. The flowers bloom on the other side of the river, their redness startling to the eye.

This flower is also known as the Red Spider Lily, and it is truly beautiful, but its symbolism is cruel. The Buddha spoke of the other shore, a place without birth or death, without suffering or sorrow, without desire or craving—a blissful world where all pain is forgotten. But the Red Spider Lily blooms on the other shore; the flower blooms without the leaf, and the leaf is absent from the flower; flower and leaf never meet, destined to be forever separated.

Its flower language also has a beautiful yet tragic legend.