Chapter 104: Chapter 85: Play With Me~

Xuan Yu jumped from Sang Que’s shoulder onto the table, while Sang Que stared at the Paperman of the old lady, and Xuan Yu used its paw to hook the paper.

The two worked together to successfully slide the paper out from under the Paperman’s palm.

The room was completely dark, making it impossible to read what was written on the paper.

Sang Que took out an ordinary candle from her bag, found the flint, and blew on it, igniting a flame, as she was about to light the candle,

Whoosh!

The flame was suddenly extinguished, a cool breath swept across Sang Que’s face, making her scalp tighten.

Meow—

Xuan Yu arched its back warily, letting out a low whimper.

Sang Que scanned the surroundings and attempted to light the candle again. Just as the candle was about to ignite, Xuan Yu leaped, claws striking fiercely, and a shadow by the candle disappeared into smoke.

Xuan Yu landed back on the table and sat down to lick its paws.

The candle was successfully lit, its dim yellow light flickering unsteadily, illuminating a small area. Sang Que rubbed Xuan Yu’s head.

Some Wandering Souls are so weak that they are quite hard to detect, yet many of the chilling and terrifying atmospheres are caused by such Wandering Souls.

Sang Que wasn’t sure if Xuan Yu’s claws naturally had the ability to tear Wandering Souls, or if it was because she believed Xuan Yu could, and thus it had such powers.

Previously while guiding Xia Chan in the forest, Xuan Yu’s claws could only slightly tear apart the Evil Mist of the Yin Child, unable to damage it faster than the mist could recover, with limited power; she encouraged Xuan Yu to practice more, believing it would grow stronger.

Sang Que held the candle up to roughly scan the surroundings; one side of the small hall had a screen, and the other had display shelves. There were shattered porcelain pieces all over the ground, cobwebs everywhere, and moss underfoot, an overall dilapidated and antique feel, steeped in horror.

She held the candle up to the paper, quickly reading the words written there.

[The Ming Family has a daughter, born differently from ordinary people. Everyone in the mansion knows this daughter to be a monstrous child, her body completely pale and festering, like a ghost born from a tree, drinking human blood, sucking human marrow, eating human flesh, lurking in the day, roaming at night throughout the mansion…]

Sang Que had just reached this part when suddenly there came a snapping sound of branches breaking from outside.

The person and the cat exchanged a glance, immediately blew out the candle, and moved behind the door to peer outside.

They saw a completely pale woman, covered in festering wounds and veins of blue-black, struggling to emerge from a charred, broken tree at the courtyard’s entrance. Hardened, forked black branches grew from all over her body under the torrent of rain.

Ghostly flames were crushed by an invisible force, causing patches of red flowers and wild grasses on the ground to wither and die en masse.

Sang Que held her breath, somewhat incredulous as she looked at the paper in her hand.

The woman moved like an old tree, slowly shuffling away from the courtyard, disappearing into the darkness.

Not until she could no longer hear the sound of branches breaking beneath the woman’s steps did Sang Que dare to let out a gentle breath.

Should she continue reading or not? Sang Que hesitated for a moment, feeling that the storyteller’s narrative trigger mode required someone to see the story; if no one were to see it, perhaps the events described in the story wouldn’t happen.

“Hesitation is not my style; I’ll see what happens. If it means death, so be it! Even if I don’t watch, the storyteller will find someone else to see!”

Meow!

Xuan Yu nodded in agreement. Sang Que relit the candle and continued reading.

[…There was a girl named Huilan, who, on behalf of her sister, took care of the daily life of the Ming Family’s monstrous child. She hadn’t seen the true form for days, and everything was fine. During routine cleaning, she stumbled upon several pages of a manuscript, discovering that this Ming Family monstrous child delighted in crafting bizarre and eerie tales, some of which were particularly fascinating, such as this one…]

The script changed, becoming more elegant and the language more colloquial than the previous part.

[In some place, there was a haunted house where the residents frequently died mysteriously and inexplicably. The landlord, having no other choice, had to sell the house at a low price. One day, a group of three men, having made their fortune on the Green Forest Road, bristling with the aura of blood, unafraid of ghosts and monsters, bought the house. On their first night, Old Three felt his bed shaking in the dead of night. Upon opening his eyes, he saw three or five children jumping and playing on his bed, urging him to ’play with me.’ Old Three drew his knife, and the children vanished amidst laughter.]

[The next day, the three searched the whole house for the children, but found nothing, nor did they unearth any remains. Laughing at Old Three’s cowardice, Old Three, dissatisfied, stayed up for a night with a knife. Unknowingly, he fell asleep. When he awoke, he found himself inside a coffin. The children’s laughter echoed, continuously uttering, ’play with me.’ Distraught, Old Three repeatedly refused. The children then said, ’point to one person, and you may leave.’]

[On the third day, Old Two died suddenly on the bed. Realizing something was amiss, Old One killed Old Three in an attempt to escape, only to see the children playing on the bed, urging him to ’play with me’…]

Sang Que and Xuan Yu craned their heads together to see the last sentence, finding no more content.

“It doesn’t feel like anything frightening, but the three men…”

Sang Que straightened up suddenly feeling someone behind her. She swung around with the candle, her pupils shrank, and she backed up, crashing into a coffee table.

The room, once empty, was now filled with Papermen, numbering seven or eight. They surrounded her from behind with stretched-out hands, dressed in ancient attire akin to burial robes, faces pale with two rouge circles painted on each, eerily smiling at her.

Bam! Bam-bam!

Sounds of banging came from behind the screen, accompanied by faint cries for help.

“Is anyone there, help…”

Upon hearing the voice, Sang Que, stunned, turned her head, instructed Xuan Yu to stay on guard, dodged the surrounding Papermen, and went around the screen to see a large locked chest in the corner of the room, its lid being pushed up by incessant shaking.

Bam! Bam-bam!

“Let me out…”

Sang Que swung a sword to smash the lock and lifted the lid. A blue-robed scholar crawled up, gasping for air—it was Liu Tianyou!

“Miss Mulan… Finally, I’m rescued. As soon as we stepped into the Ming Mansion, I blacked out, and when I came to, I found myself locked here…”

A chill rushed straight to Sang Que’s head from behind; if Liu Tianyou was locked here, then who was the Liu Tianyou with them earlier?

*

At the Ming Mansion, deep in the main courtyard.

A robust man with a stubbly beard held a half-burned candle, examining the densely packed small text on the page, which recounted the story of the ’Returning Guest.’

[…The person in the box was exactly the blue-robed scholar; question, who was the blue-robed scholar who had been with everyone in the outer courtyard? Which is true? Which is false? As the Returning Guest was trembling with fear, he had no idea that an even greater danger was waiting to unfold.]

[On a stormy night, a hundred ghosts wandered; the Ming Mansion’s grievances persisted, and Huilanxin held the spell; debts of predecessors were to be repaid by successors. The Returning Guest had to choose whether to follow destiny or break it, with the resolution to wait for the next installment.]

“What kind of nonsense is this? Do they think they can trick me because I’m not educated?”

The robust man with a stubbly beard felt frustration amidst his reading, crumpling the paper into a ball and tossing it away.

Su Liangyuan, holding a broken lantern, hunched and anxiously waited by the door.

The robust man’s two brothers were wielding knives, knocking around various parts of the house searching for secret passageways or hiding places.

These stories couldn’t have just appeared out of nowhere; the presence of the storyteller’s narratives indicated he had been there before.

The tall, slender man, third in the hierarchy among the three, entered the main bedroom and kicked down a dilapidated screen. Holding the candle, he rummaged around and, upon spotting valuable items, discreetly tucked them into his clothes.

After the futile search, Old Three turned to leave, when suddenly, childlike laughter was accompanied by the bursting in noise from behind.

“Play with me~”

Whoosh!

The candle in his hand was blown out, leaving Old Three feeling like the world spun around him. Before he knew it, he lay down from standing and found himself confined in a narrow space.

It felt like… a coffin!

Cold, small hands grabbed at his ankles and calves. Old Three strained his neck to look downwards, and several decayed children’s heads scurried up from beneath his feet.

“Play with me~”

“Aaaahhhh!!!”

Outside, the robust man with the stubbly beard and Old Two, who had just left the inner room, rushed inside upon hearing the screams.

At that moment, Old Two suddenly froze. His eyes quickly dimmed as he raised his large knife, slashing it across his own neck.

Hot blood spurted out, splattering over the robust man with the stubbly beard. Shocked, he watched Old Two collapse and convulse, while Old Three scrambled out from the inner room.

As Old Two lay dying, an arm lifted, directly pointing at Old Three, who sat slumped on the floor.

“Hee hee~”

“Play with me~”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep