“The despair of utter helplessness made her eyes split wide with fury, one…”
Whether it was because everyone simply grows fonder of sticking close to their friends after going to college, Zhou Fuzhen at any rate found herself wanting to hang out with her dormmates every single day after moving into the dormitory, entirely forgetting to return home.
However, her parents would call her from time to time to urge her to come home more often, forcing her to abandon her “bad company” every weekend and spend at least a day back home keeping two “lonely old folks” in their prime company.
When she arrived home on Saturday, her father was carrying a newly bought orchid out to the courtyard to arrange it. Zhou Fuzhen tossed her backpack in the living room and followed him out to help.
Old Zhou was a businessman who had started from humble beginnings in Yiwu and moved to Jianghai City in the 1980s. Now in his later years, he had gradually acquired the temperament of a scholarly merchant. Normally, he practiced Daoism, collected cultural artifacts and antiques, cultivated orchids, and read philosophy.
After selecting a spot with suitable sunlight and ventilation for the new orchid, Old Zhou straightened his back and stood with his hands on his hips to admire his new toy.
He turned to his daughter and asked, “How’s that? Pretty?”
“Pretty,” Zhou Fuzhen smiled and nodded. A dad who enjoyed tending to flowers and plants was still much better than one fond of chasing after wild blossoms; both she and her mother heavily encouraged these little hobbies of his.
Spending the afternoon playing Go and drinking tea with her old man at home, sharing interesting anecdotes from their respective weeks over a family dinner around the table at night, and then accompanying her parents for a walk afterward—it was all quite leisurely and carefree.
That night, she went to the gym to pump some iron for a bit, watched a movie in her personal media room, and prepared for bed.
Perhaps due to the drop in temperature, Zhou Fuzhen had been feeling a constant chill around the house lately, so she switched to a thicker duvet for sleep. Hugging the fluffy comforter scented with gardenia fragrance, she quickly drifted into a deep sleep.
As the night grew late, Zhou Fuzhen’s sleep became increasingly restless.
She seemed to know she was dreaming, yet she couldn’t wake up.
Inside what felt like an ancient-style building plunged in pitch darkness, a group of people sat huddled in a circle indoors, seemingly murmuring the exact same thing in a continuous loop. Zhou Fuzhen could only perceive that those people were talking, but completely failed to make out what they were saying, though she could intuitively sense malice from them.
Fear grew steadily in her heart. She wanted to break free from this environment and get away from those murmuring, featureless figures, but the harder she tried to break free, the closer those people seemed to get to her.
A muffled groan suddenly forced its way out of her throat, and Zhou Fuzhen startled herself awake with the sound she made in her dream. Jerking her eyes open, she found the room dim and a chilling, gloomy atmosphere pervading the surroundings. The lingering sense of panic remained, making her extremely uncomfortable.
Hurryingly reaching out to turn on the lamp, she lay on the bed with her eyes wide open for quite a while. The sensations from the dream were still vivid, as if she had truly lived through some horrifying event.
With zero sleepiness left, she had no choice but to lie facedown on the bed and play on her phone.
Zhou Fuzhen, who normally loved seeking out thrills and adored horror elements, was actually so terrified by a mere nightmare that she didn’t dare sleep—Lord Ye’s love of dragons truly wasn’t just talk.
After browsing for over an hour, she finally grew drowsy again, though her subsequent sleep still wasn’t particularly sweet or restful.
After having breakfast with her parents at dawn and bringing up last night’s nightmare during the meal, her mother exclaimed in shock that she had been having nightmares for a straight week, suspecting that the house might be haunted.
Old Zhou then proposed inviting a Daoist priest over to perform an exorcism, but her mother, Old Zhao, disagreed—she was a Buddhist and wanted to invite monks to come chant scriptures instead.
Regardless of whether a Daoist priest or a monk came, Zhou Fuzhen had to head back to school after breakfast; she needed to catch up on sleep, but she certainly didn’t want to sleep at home.
…
Hours later, carrying her small leather bag in a daze, Zhou Fuzhen returned to school. The moment she stepped into the dorm room, she saw Jiang Wei coming back from the bathroom after washing a mop, and instantly rushed over to demand a hug.
“What’s wrong, Zhenzhen?” Jiang Wei dropped the mop and hugged the listless Zhou Fuzhen.
“Didn’t sleep well yesterday,” Zhou Fuzhen scratched her hair in vexation. “My house felt freezing cold, and the moment I got back, I felt uneasy. My whole family suspects the house is haunted.”
After saying that, she felt her words sounded a bit silly and chuckled self-deprecatingly.
“Probably just because of the temperature drop. Turn on the floor heating; once the room warms up, it should be fine,” Jiang Wei comforted her.
“Yeah, true.” Zhou Fuzhen absorbed some warmth from Jiang Wei, inexplicably feeling exceptionally reassured, and climbed up onto her bed to catch up on sleep.
Another week of classes concluded, and the weekend arrived.
As Zhou Fuzhen slung her small bag over her shoulder and prepared to head home, Jiang Wei suddenly unclasped a jade pendant from her own neck.
“If you’re scared, wear this.” Jiang Wei hung the jade pendant around Zhou Fuzhen’s neck, pinched the pendant, and said, “It’s a consecrated jade pendant blessed by a master. It’s carved with Weng Zhong, meant for warding off evil.”
…
Sitting in the car with her backpack placed beside her, Zhou Fuzhen pulled out the jade pendant Jiang Wei had lent her. The little object still held warmth in her grip, feeling cozy.
It probably wasn’t too expensive, but since Jiang Wei took it right off her neck to give to her, she had to wear it with care and cherish it.
When she arrived home, she happened to run into her father coming out of the greenhouse. Catching a glimpse of the new pendant on his daughter’s neck at first glance, it almost looked as if a warm aura of mist and light was lingering around the jade pendant.
“Nice jade pendant. Where’d it from?” Old Zhou looked closer. Although the halo and white smoke weren’t there anymore, it was still a piece of decent quality.
“A friend’s.” Zhou Fuzhen pinched the jade pendant and looked at it.
Old Zhou leaned in for a closer look. Although the carved pattern was simple, the artistic conception was excellent, clearly showing that the carver possessed top-tier craftsmanship and aesthetic sense. “Your friend is quite generous. Are they hitting on you?”
“A female friend.”
“?” Old Zhou stared suspiciously at his daughter. Kids these days were wild—a female friend didn’t necessarily mean it couldn’t be a romantic relationship.
“A precious, pure friendship!” The moment she locked eyes with her father, Zhou Fuzhen knew what he was thinking. She rolled her eyes at him and turned back toward the living room.
Picking up her backpack, Zhou Fuzhen pinched the small jade pendant and examined it again. Her dad had been obsessed with jade ware for a period five or six years ago, so his eye for it was definitely there; if he said this jade was of good quality, then it was bound to be top-notch jade.
Turns out it was a very valuable treasure.
Rubbing the jade pendant in the palm of her hand, Zhou Fuzhen tucked it inside her clothes so it pressed right against her skin.
Walking toward the stairs, as she passed the room her mother used as a Buddhist shrine, her chest suddenly grew hot.
She touched her chest and pulled the jade pendant back out.
The slanting rays of the setting sun fell right upon Zhou Fuzhen, bathing the jade pendant in golden twilight as if it were radiating golden light.
Feeling it with her hand, it wasn’t particularly hot; it must have been an illusion.
……
Late at night, while Zhou Fuzhen was sleeping deeply, the bedroom door suddenly slowly swung open a crack.
In her groggy state, she seemed to feel a wave of chilliness and curled up into a ball inside the quilt.
In her dream, she vaguely sensed that there were other people in the room. The sound of a child crying suddenly echoed by her ear, exceptionally spine-chilling. In her dream, she seemed to have experienced something when her body suddenly plunged downward; she opened her eyes and woke from the dream, discovering she was drenched in a cold sweat.
Wanting to turn over to go to the bathroom and drink some hot water, she tried to lift her hand, only to find her limbs limp and weak. Was she still dreaming?
Just as she felt somewhat dazed, a heavy weight suddenly pressed down on her chest, feeling as though a mountain had been placed upon it.
She exerted strength in both arms, wanting to sit up, but control over her body was completely out of her hands. Her heartbeat accelerated rapidly. The coldness, the softness of the mattress beneath her, and the weight of the blanket were exceptionally real, and Zhou Fuzhen suddenly realized she was not dreaming at all.
Every hair on her body stood rigidly on end, and a tingling sensation crept across the back of her scalp. If her hair were short, it probably would have stood straight up. The weight on her chest grew heavier and heavier, as if a fat person were squatting right on her chest, still continuously pressing downward.
Zhou Fuzhen felt as though her ribs were about to be crushed, and her breathing grew increasingly hurried.
Her hand suddenly regained freedom, and she hurriedly pushed upward against her chest. In the darkness, the room was cast in a grayish haze, and she could vaguely see that there was nothing at all on her chest, yet her fingers unmistakably touched something ice-cold. Her heart sank abruptly; she wanted to scream for help, but no sound came out.
The tactile sensation transmitted to her fingertips and palms was so real, sticky, damp, and cold—she had touched a monster.
Her breathing grew more and more arduous. She wanted to reach out and push away the thing on her body, when suddenly two forces pressed her hands down at her sides. Aside from her eyes, there was not a single part of her body that could move.
For a split second, she seemed to feel the approach of death; the ultimate despair of human existence lay right here.
The terror of being crushed to death by a ghost made her head swim and her whole body shiver. She opened her mouth wide, struggling desperately to breathe, while ragged, rattling gasps kept escaping her throat, her heartbeat going so haywire it felt as though it might leap right out of her mouth.
The despair of utter helplessness made her eyes split wide with fury, and a pair of cold, sinister hands had already clamped onto her neck, slowly tightening their grip.
The terror of impending death triggered a massive surge of potential within her. She abruptly broke free with both hands and lunged forward to grab and push against the entity in front of her. At the exact same time, a sudden drastic change occurred. The skin on her chest suddenly felt scorched, a ball of fire burst into flame right from her chest, and the next moment, she could move again.
With no time to think it over, Zhou Fuzhen scrambled and crawled out of bed, gasping heavily for air. Slapping the light switch on, she stood with her back pressed against the wall, trembling all over as her terrified eyes swept across the entire room.
There was nothing in the room—it was brightly lit and pinkish, with neither monsters nor ghosts.
Her chest heaved violently, and the burning pain continued to jab at her nerves, reminding her just how real everything that had just happened was.
Looking down, she pulled up her pajamas. There was a charred, blackened hole on the fabric, and a tiny spark floated upward into the air before instantly extinguishing. The small jade pendant hanging around her neck had lost the light it had just emitted, appearing somewhat dimmer than before.
Clutching the jade pendant, which still retained its residual warmth, Zhou Fuzhen stood frozen in place for a long, long time, her heart still lingering with fear. It wasn’t until her breathing gradually steadied and no further bizarre occurrences manifested that she regained a bit of her wits. Moving extremely slowly back toward the bed, she picked up her phone from the bedside table with one hand while using the other to touch the small hole burned out by the spark on the mattress.
A few minutes later, Zhou Fuzhen sat on the master bedroom sofa, having her mother inspect the burn marks on her chest, and slowly gathered her wits back.
Shuddering with a chill, she clutched the Weng Zhong jade pendant and stared blankly in thought:
Just now, she had truly experienced a supernatural event. Whether Sun Tian had actually seen a ghost or not was up for debate, but she seemed to have genuinely encountered one—only it didn’t seem quite as exciting and thrilling as she had anticipated.
On the contrary, her body was still trembling all over; it was just too terrifying…