Translator: Exodus Tales
Editor: Exodus Tales
He flashed past like the wind, and for a while, I couldn’t see his movements clearly. I only heard him say, “Don’t waste your energy; this is not something you can manage.”
After the ghost infant finished its words, a series of sinister laughter followed by, sending goosebumps all over me.
I saw Su Yulan try to drag her father’s body, but because she lacked physical strength and with her body trembling, she could not move it even an inch. Both of them were still in the hall.
Su Yulan looked at me in horror, lowered her voice, and said, “Shh! There’s a ghost.”
I shuddered and wanted to shout at her, but my throat seemed to be blocked by something.
Su Yulan was crazy, but she might have felt the presence of the ghost infant. Since I saw her, she had been repeating ‘there are ghosts.’ Just hearing her say this was enough to make me shudder, not to mention I could see the ghost infant’s scary face.
“I advise you to leave here quickly and don’t get in my way anymore,” The ghost infant’s cold warning sounded again.
I widened my eyes in an attempt to catch his movements, but his speed accelerated again.
“Stop if you have the courage. Let’s fight alone,” I plucked up the courage to yell at him.
He laughed out loud.
At the same time, the door of the villa was knocked open with a ‘boom.’ A puff of white smoke roared in, making it hard to keep my eyes open.
I raised my arm to block the smoke and squinted my eyes. Only then, I managed to see a looming cold light. I then saw two weird shadows appearing from the light.
At that moment, the villa’s lights all went out with a ‘pop,’ plunging the surrounding area into darkness, leaving only the looming light at the door.
The ghost infant gave out a startled cry as if he had seen something terrible. He got so scared he stopped and shrank into a nearby corner, gnashing his teeth at the door.
Su Yulan didn’t know what was going on. She looked up at the lamp that was turned off on the ceiling and muttered, “It’s dark, it’s dark…”
I looked towards the door, and the appearance of the two black shadows in the weird white mist became clearer and clearer. They were two tall men, both holding large black chains in their hands. One was wearing a white robe while the other wore a black robe; both of them had tall hats. They looked like they were hell’s soulbringer – Heibai Wuchang [1].
The ghost stories I heard as a kid often mentioned Heibai Wuchang, but I never knew that they really existed.
I looked shocked and couldn’t help taking a few steps back.
Heibai Wuchang stepped into the house, and the large iron chain they dragged made an ear-piercing rattling noise.
Both of them had pale faces, thin cheeks, bright black eyes, and robust features. They looked like twin brothers. If not for the fact that they were dressed differently, it would have been difficult to differentiate between them.
Hei Wuchang glanced at me, smiled coldly, and walked straight toward the old man lying on the ground while Bai Wuchang dragged the iron chain toward the ghost infant who was squatting in the corner.
“You vile creature, it’s time to go with us.”
The ghost infant gnashed his teeth and let out roars that sounded higher than anything else I had ever heard before. He looked so fierce as if he was a beast who had just encountered a hunter, but in actuality, his body kept trembling.
I hurriedly looked at the old man again to see Hei Wuchang gesture with his finger, and the old man’s soul came out from the body like a wisp of blue smoke.
Hei Wuchang shook the big iron chain in his hand, and the chain wrapped around the old man’s hands like a snake. The old man’s eyes were dull, and he followed Hei Wuchang toward the door like a walking corpse.
I wondered how the old man died and asked Hei Wuchang, but he just looked at me coldly and didn’t respond.
I swallowed my saliva and saw Hei Wuchang leading the old man into the doorway, disappearing into the white smoke. I looked back at Bai Wuchang and the ghost infant.
They were in a stalemate situation. I felt that the ghost infant would not be caught obediently, but Bai Wuchang was obviously not an easy opponent to deal with. Bai Wuchang waved the iron chain, and it landed on the ghost infant. The ghost infant started shrinking backward after getting hit by the iron chain but after a few lashes of the iron chain, the ghost infant lost his temper and started begging for forgiveness submissively.
Bai Wuchang’s lips twitched. He tied the ghost infant’s hands and feet with the iron chain and dragged him into the cloud of smoke.
Their figures disappeared into the fog. The villa’s door slammed shut, and the villa’s lights turned on naturally again.
When I came back to my senses, a long time had already passed.
Later, I heard that the old man of the Su family died of a heart attack but I felt that the heart attack was because he was frightened by the ghost infant. I also heard from Shang Yi that the death of the ghost infant was actually caused by the Su family. Su Yulan’s parents made up their mind to kill the ghost fetus even before it was born. When the baby was born, they brought Su Yulan to the outskirts, found the dry well behind the school where I was studying and urged Su Yulan to strangle the ghost fetus and throw it into the well.
Su Yulan’s mother died of illness last year, and now her father has also just passed away. The large villa now only had Su Yulan who was crazy. She was still unmarried and no one had wanted to marry her because she was crazy and stupid.
Lin Xiao started to regain his consciousness, and the swelling of his body began to fade. He didn’t know what had happened and only remembered that he had been in a deep sleep and had a series of bizarre dreams.
I asked him what he had dreamed of, but he said that he could not remember clearly.
Fortunately, the matter was resolved satisfactorily.
On the last day of the holiday, Shang Yi came over and had a meal at my house upon the invitation of my aunty. When he left in the evening, he gave me some ghost talismans for me to carry by my side.
When he gave them to me, he told me that my ophyron was dark [2] and that there was misfortune lingering around me. He told me to take care of myself.
I guessed the misfortune he was talking about was Xu Zixi.
Recently, Xu Zixi hasn’t tormented me in my dreams. Maybe the hostility of the ghost infant made her stay away.
After having lunch the next day, my aunty drove me to the bus stop at the entrance of the village. She gave me several hundred yuan for my living expenses.
At school though, I only needed money for meals and didn’t need that much money.
I still haven’t used up the few hundred yuan she gave me last time.
“You don’t need to give me so much money. I can’t finish it.”
Aunty insisted, “Take it and save the extra money. Which girl doesn’t want to dress up nicely? Use it to buy whatever you want in the future.”
I did not refuse any more, but felt sorry toward my aunty. It was not easy for her to earn money. She had to pack a lot of disposable tableware just to make a few hundred yuan in the factory. This reason made me want to spend her money wisely.
My aunty treats me as her child but my biological father doesn’t even care about me. Whenever I thought about it, I had always found it ridiculous.
I said goodbye to my aunty and the bus drove away.
From the car window, I saw my aunty still standing there waving at me. Somehow, my nose started to tingle and a fear tears dropped down my cheek.
I stretched out my hand to wipe away the tears. Sitting down at my seat, I took out the hundreds of yuan from my pocket, paused, and placed it back into my pocket after looking at it for a long time.
“Your aunty is kind to you.”
“Yes., I answered.
I suddenly felt that something was not right. I turned my head to see Ming Si sitting beside me, looking at me with a smile.
I didn’t know when he appeared. This guy moved around without a trace or sign at all.