◎ Destroying the Evidence ◎
Heavy footsteps faintly echoed from downstairs, sounding particularly jarring in the silent third-floor hallway.
Upon hearing the noise, He Yupu immediately crouched to the floor and tucked his notebook into the crevices beneath the table. Just as he prepared to stand, he was hit by a stench of cheap, pungent alcohol.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and turned on the flashlight.
Scattered across the floor were shriveled tangerines covered in mold, alongside chunks of putrid, rotting meat that emitted a nauseating odor.
He Yupu’s body was weak. He inhaled some of the dust and could not stop coughing. As he pressed his hands against the floor to steady himself, his gaze locked with that of a tattered doll in the far corner.
The malice contained in its gaze was terrifying. A shiver ran down He Yupu’s spine, the chill creeping up from his ankles, and his neck began to ache.
Perhaps it was his imagination, but the arc of the doll’s mouth seemed to widen. Its hollow eyes shifted at a glacial pace, as if sizing up this reckless human before it.
He Yupu looked back, scrutinizing the doll’s appearance and the intricate, complex runes inscribed upon it.
Damn, this is a doll used to raise an imp, is it not?
He Yupu connected the dots regarding the landlady’s attitude toward her two daughters and realized what was likely happening. The landlady had only one biological daughter when she was alive, but for some reason, she had raised an imp to replace her, unaware that her real daughter had been by her side all along. She could not tell the two apart, believing them to be the same person.
As the footsteps grew closer, He Yupu tried to rise, but his limbs felt stiff and ice cold, as if the doll were restraining him.
He Yupu curled his beautiful eyes, his voice low and dangerous. “A mere inferior ghost dares to be insolent in front of me?”
His long eyelashes trembled. His fingers, fair as white porcelain, moved with such speed they left only afterimages. His consciousness stirred with a hidden current, and a faint, golden Buddhist light coalesced at his wrists.
Bathed in this light, the tattered doll’s body began to crack, and two lines of bloody tears streamed from its empty sockets.
“Help me, ahhhhh!”
It opened its mouth wide, letting out a shrill, piercing scream.
The footsteps on the third floor abruptly accelerated. He Yupu’s eyes dimmed slightly; he stopped his hand movements and rose from the floor. He straightened his disheveled clothes and sat back in the chair, waiting for the landlady’s arrival.
The footsteps stopped at the doorway.
The landlady pushed open the door, her pitch black eyeballs scanning the room before landing on the beautiful young man. Her face was ferocious as she emitted a cold, icy snort from deep in her throat, her eyes filled with thick disgust. “What are you doing?”
“Waiting for you, obviously. Can you not see me sitting here?”
The landlady scanned him suspiciously. “You actually made the villager disappear. What method did you use?”
He Yupu replied, “It is a very special method involving a form of contract. If I tell you, it will cease to work.”
“Tsk. Troublesome human, follow me.”
The landlady scrutinized him for a few seconds. Whether she believed him or not, she did not press the issue, instead saying to herself, “You saw it, right? The inn rules on the front desk notice board. Those who check out die.”
He Yupu nodded obediently. “Yes, I saw them.”
The landlady turned back to look at him, her posture weird and twisted. “Then I will give you one chance to change your mind. I am asking you one last time: do you still want to check out?”
He Yupu said, “No.”
The landlady’s voice grew sharper, dripping with malice. “Then you must help me kill those damned villagers.”
“No problem.” He Yupu tilted his head. “But will you let me go?”
“Of course not. You villagers all deserve to die.”
The landlady squinted and said with a mock mercy, “But I will give you a quick death.”
He Yupu: “My thanks to your entire family.”