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After Yingqi's funeral, Dingdong was handed over to Yingqi's older sister. Fortunately, Dingdong was too young to remember anything, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. They decided not to tell Dingdong about Yingqi's death. Since Yingqi died so that Dingdong could have a good life, it was best to keep these things to themselves. They believed that Dingdong would live well under Yingqi's protection.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Possession (1)

After everyone returned to the city, they continued working, but Qin Jin was strongly urged to move into Tang Shishi's house so that the two of them could look after each other.

All four of them thought a great battle was imminent, but day after day they watched the sun rise in the east and set in the west without any supernatural events happening. This made Ke Liang often say that life was too mundane and boring.

Yes, everything seemed to have calmed down on the surface. There were no more nightmares or chases. If it weren't for the deaths of Lan Qi and Ying Qi, Qin Jin would have thought that as long as he opened his eyes, it was all just a dream and he could see his friends again.

One day, Shishi was browsing the internet when a webpage popped up on her screen. She glanced at it—an advertisement announcing a buffet party on the city's highest rooftop. She was about to close it when a thought struck her: she hadn't been to a dance party in ages! She should go and have some fun. Was she really going to wait a hundred years? That would either kill her or drive her crazy. Was she really going to continue living this stupid, blockhead-like life? No way! Never!

Shishi stood up and began to examine her dress. She planned to sneak out to attend the party today.

Qin Jin called out from outside the door, "Shishi, how about we go to Ke Liang's house for dinner tonight?"

"I'm not going, I'm a little tired today, you go!"

Qin Jin muttered from outside the door: "That's strange. Why does she keep complaining of being tired lately? She used to play every day and never got tired."

Watching Qin Jin get into the car and drive away, Shi Shi excitedly ran out of the house, put on her dress, jumped out of the back garden window, not daring to be seen by the driver and servants, and prepared to go out for a secret tryst alone.

The tallest building in the city was easy to find, and the taxi quickly took her there.

Strangely, there was no notice about the party; it was probably a private gathering, which is why there were no waiters to give directions.

She stood in the hotel's most luxurious elevator, which led directly to the rooftop.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, a beautiful venue was revealed against the night sky. The distant lights illuminated the stunning dance floor, making it truly breathtaking.

Shishi lingered on the rooftop, feeling uneasy about it. The rooftop felt deserted today, a stark contrast to its former bustling state. Suddenly feeling tired, Shishi dragged a chair over and sat down.

A cool breeze blew by, feeling very comfortable, and I slowly closed my eyes and fell asleep.

She was sound asleep when the beautiful music woke her up. When she opened her eyes, she was startled to find herself surrounded by people. But she calmed down and assumed that there was another party downstairs and that people had come up to have fun.

Everyone was dressed in gorgeous gowns, acting as if they were attending a grand ball. People were moving about, some laughing, some taking things from Shishi, but no one paid her any attention, ignoring her smiles. Feeling bored, she fiddled with her earrings, when accidentally her pearl earring fell off. Startled, she didn't want to make a sound, afraid of disturbing the ball, so she simply looked down and searched for it.

She crawled under the tablecloth at the buffet to see where the earring was, and as she slowly bent down, what she saw terrified her.

The woman standing by the buffet table was dressed in a beautiful black outfit, her bare back exposed, looking very alluring under the lights and in the night breeze. She was holding a glass of red wine and flirting with a man.

When Shishi pulled up the tablecloth to look over, she pressed her face to the ground, but when she looked up, she found that there was nothing on the ground.

There was nothing on the ground.

There were no human feet at all; these people were all floating.

So, these are not human beings.

Shishi dared not make a sound and could only back away. When she reached the door, she accidentally knocked over a wine bottle with a loud crash. All eyes on the rooftop were on her. Blood was slowly seeping from the white dresses of those people. Everyone's expression was so wooden, except for one pair of eyes that were particularly terrifying.

Yes, those aren't real eyes; they're fake eyes. Only glass fake eyes have that kind of luster, lifeless yet shimmering with light.

This group of people had all lost their pupils. Shishi frantically retreated, and the group of people slowly floated over.

The elevator was stuck on the bottom floor, and no matter how many times I pressed the button, it wouldn't come up.

Shishi stared in disbelief, retreating to the fire door. She quickly pulled the handle, intending to run downstairs. The stairs were so dark; after running several floors, she looked up again and saw nothing was chasing her. Just as she breathed a sigh of relief and was about to run down, she bumped into someone. The person slowly stood up from the ground, their face deathly pale in the light. It was none other than Lan Qi! Lan Qi walked towards her step by step. Shishi, startled, lost consciousness.

Bored utterly in Ke Liang's opulent kitchen, Qin Jin dialed Shi Shi's number: "Why is no one answering today?"

Just as I was getting worried, the call suddenly went through, and Shishi's voice came from afar: "Who is it!"

"Shishi, it's me. Where have you been? I called home, but the maid said you weren't there."

"I'm going for a walk outside. I'm already home." With that, she hung up the phone.

Qin Jin looked at Ke Liang and said, "It's so strange. Shi Shi's voice sounded weak and listless today, like she's sick. I wonder what happened. I have to go back and check on her."

Ke Liang said, "I didn't even let you stay overnight at my house. Humph, you just ate and ran away. Really."

Qin Jin angrily threw the strawberry at her: "Alright, Shishi has been acting strange all day. She's probably angry that I came here to eat alone. If I had known your food was this bad, I wouldn't have come. And you still brag about having a master chef in your house."

"Am I not a top-tier chef? Is my cooking bad?" Ke Liang grumbled in dissatisfaction.

"It's not just bad, it's inedible. The meat was all overcooked, the fish was bitter, the noodles were all salty, and there was only fruit, but you didn't make the fruit, did you?"

Qin Jin felt angry just thinking about this unfortunate dinner.

"Alright, alright, you picky woman, let's see who will want you in the future besides Hei Bao."

Blackie, who was eating premium cat food not far away, meowed contentedly twice.

Qin Jin picked up Hei Bao and left. She couldn't argue with this spendthrift anymore. She was always feeling uneasy and couldn't feel at ease unless she saw Shi Shi.

Ke Liang quickly took Qin Jin to Shi Shi's door. Qin Jin carried Hei Bao into the house and asked the maid. She learned that Shi Shi was in the bedroom upstairs. She put Hei Bao in the cat basket to let it sleep, but it seemed very energetic and wanted to jump on Qin Jin. Qin Jin had just argued with Ke Liang and was not in the mood to play with Hei Bao, so she insisted on putting it in the cat basket.

Shishi's home is a large duplex with a beautiful hall. When she went up to the second floor, she found the hallway dark and the lights were off.

She pressed the light switch; the light was broken. She called out to the maid, Aunt Hu, from across the building, "Aunt Hu, the light is broken and needs to be replaced."

No one answered; Aunt Hu had probably gone to sleep in the maid's room.

She had no choice but to walk forward in the dark. She knocked on Shishi's door a few times, but Shishi didn't respond. Qin Jin thought that Shishi was probably asleep. She decided to try again tomorrow. Just as she was about to turn around and go back to her own room, she found that Shishi's door was not closed properly.

She pushed open the door and went in. In Shishi's princess-like bedroom, only a small light was on at the dressing table, reflecting Shishi's face in the mirror.

Shishi slowly turned around and said, "Qin Jin, it's been a long time."

"What do you mean 'long time no see'? I just went out today. Are you angry?" Qin Jin leaned closer.

"No, I'm putting on makeup!"

"It's so late, why are you still putting on makeup? Where are you going?"

Shishi sighed sadly, "I'm not going anywhere. I'm so jealous of women who can have so many cosmetics. They can always put on makeup for themselves, and that would be happiness."

"Who in this world do you need to be jealous of? You have everything, Shishi. Why are you saying such nonsensical things today?"

"But I have no love," Shishi suddenly exclaimed in a shrill voice.

The sound was fleeting, and then both of them fell silent.

Shishi seemed to have suddenly regained her composure: "Qin Jin, I'm really jealous of you. You have two such good men who like you, while Lu Ziming doesn't like me at all. I feel like I'm really jealous."

After saying that, Qin Jin laughed heartily. He felt that Shi Shi was sometimes normal and sometimes crazy. Perhaps it was because she had been too depressed lately. He had left her again today, and she must be thinking of doing something drastic.

Qin Jin said guiltily, "Shishi, you're a good girl. No one would bear to hurt you. Please don't think so much, okay?"

Shishi sneered a few times, then suddenly picked up the eyebrow tweezers and said to Qin Jin, "Look at you, your eyebrows have grown all the way up to your forehead, why don't you trim them?"

Qin Jin looked at herself and realized that she hadn't groomed her eyebrows in a long time, and they looked terrible. Shi Shi leaned over, held the eyebrow tweezers above her eyes, and said softly, "Women shouldn't be lazy. If you don't take care of yourself, men will abandon you."

Qin Jin smiled shyly, turned her face away from the mirror, raised her head, and Shi Shi stood down, bending down to carefully examine Qin Jin's eyebrows, slowly extending the eyebrow tweezers.

The person in the mirror was no longer Shishi, but a person with blood streaming down her face and no eyes. She was bent over, her long hair hanging down, and she was searching for Qin Jin's eyes with her pupil-less face. Her hands were not making the gesture of pinching her eyebrows, but gouging out her eyes.

Just then, a sharp meow rang out. Qin Jin jumped up, pushed Shi Shi aside, opened the door, and ran outside. She saw a dark shadow flash by in the shadows; it was Hei Bao who had run upstairs. She saw Hei Bao sitting at the top of the stairs, looking at her as if inviting her to come down. Seeing that the adorable black cat was safe and sound, Qin Jin felt a huge weight lifted from her heart.

Turning back, she saw that Shishi looked angry. She comforted her, "Forget it, why bother fixing your eyebrows at night? Do it during the day!"

Shishi lay down and fell asleep without saying a word. Qin Jin was about to leave when he heard Shishi's voice: "Qin Jin, will you sleep with me tonight?"

Qin Jin thought that perhaps she had been frightened by Hei Bao's inexplicable scream. Well, it was good that she was a little scared too. She and Shi Shi had been friends for over ten years and had slept together since junior high school. So, Qin Jin nodded, randomly picked a new set of pajamas from Shi Shi's wardrobe, changed into it, and fell asleep as soon as she lay down.

While she was half asleep, she felt something was wrong; the area around her was unusually cold.

While wondering if Shishi had taken the blanket, she slowly sat up, preparing to find another blanket to cover herself with.

Qin Jin slowly opened her eyes, trying to make out her surroundings in the dim moonlight. She sensed something was wrong; why was Shishi so quiet? She was such a restless sleeper.

So she leaned closer to get a better look. Why was Shishi's face so pale? And her eyes looked so strange! She reached out to touch her, and suddenly screamed. That wasn't Shishi at all! It was one of those paper figures made for the dead, the kind sold in paper shops. It had a deathly pale face, bright red lips, and shiny black hair. It was the Jade Maiden from the paper figure duo of Golden Boy and Jade Girl.

The paper figure lay quietly beside me, gleaming coldly in the pale moonlight, silent, covered by a blanket with only its head showing.

Qin Jin screamed, her mind frozen. She saw the paper figure slowly sit up, raise its hand as if to find her throat.

A dark figure leaped over and landed heavily in Qin Jin's arms. Qin Jin was startled; it was Hei Bao.

She was only stunned for a moment, and when she looked up again, the paper figure had already transformed into the living Shishi. Shishi looked at her strangely: "What are you yelling for in the middle of the night?"

Qin Jin, still shaken, pointed at Shishi and said, "Paper...paper..."

"What paper? I need toilet paper. There's some in the bathroom. I'm sleeping soundly. Your screaming will scare someone to death." Shishi looked at her helplessly.

Qin Jin hurriedly got out of bed. Could it really be a nightmare? She quickly said, "I'm sorry." After saying that, she picked up Hei Bao and ran to her bedroom. She ran back and turned on all the lights. She hid under the covers, trembling, and dared not close her eyes.

She stared longingly out the window, waiting for dawn. Why had Shishi suddenly become like that? Was she seeing things, or was something really wrong? In any case, she had to talk to Ke Liang and Lu Ziming about it tomorrow.

She made up her mind to stay with Hei Bao and never let go. The two of them would stay together like that for the rest of their lives.

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Chapter Twenty-Four: Mourning (1)

When Qin Jin opened her eyes in the morning, she saw a white figure standing in front of her bed.

She was shocked. Looking closely, she saw it was Shishi. Forcing a smile, she groped for Hei Bao's body under the covers with one hand, her palms sweaty, unsure of what to do.

Shishi simply said, "It's so late, how long do you plan to sleep? Get up, I need to help you pluck your eyebrows later!"

Qin Jin felt a chill run down her spine as she recalled the scene from last night. She immediately jumped to the other side of the bed and looked at Shishi, who was wearing a white nightgown.

"Go change your nightgown first, Lu Ziming and Ke Liang will be here soon," Qin Jin said.

"How come I didn't know they were coming?" Shishi asked coldly.

"How could you not know? Didn't we already agree on this? Today is your birthday, and we've been planning this day for weeks."

Shishi answered expressionlessly, "Is that so?" and turned to leave.

Qin Jin carried Hei Bao and ran quickly to the bathroom, turning on the tap in the hope of waking herself up with cold water.

She looked at herself in the mirror, her eyes swollen with dark circles, looking terribly old. The endless frights of these past few days had aged her considerably, and Shishi's inexplicable changes only made her feel uneasy.

It can't be real. How could Shishi turn into a paper doll? Her expression is completely different. Qin Jin didn't want to accept this reality. She was terrified, afraid that she was possessed by a ghost she had encountered before.