Her voice was sharp and shrill, not something a little girl should have been able to make.
Or rather, no human could have a voice like that.
Rigid, mechanical, close to his ear, yet as if it had passed through his ears and driven straight into his heart.
Gu Yi was stunned by that voice.
Then, the little girl gave him a bizarre smile.
“Take me home… take me home… hehe, I’m so happy!”
The little girl smiled as she turned her head. Her movements were very stiff, and it gave the impression that she was a doll that had already broken.
She tugged at her tattered princess dress and spun in circles on the spot, as if she were dancing, but that posture was so strange and twisted that Gu Yi even felt the next second her head would fall off.
What was going on?
The little girl danced more and more joyfully, but Gu Yi felt a very intense, spine-chilling dread.
In the long corridor, there was only him and the little girl.
He could hear his own breathing, his own heartbeat, and all around them was a chill, like an icy cavern.
So cold.
That feeling rose from the bottom of his heart, and for a short while, his body actually could not move.
The little girl had danced enough. She stopped and stared at him. Her clear eyes suddenly turned blood-red, carrying a vicious and greedy light.
That gaze was like a beast discovering its prey, and also like a child seeing a toy it had long desired.
She seemed to like him very much, but that liking made Gu Yi’s hair stand on end.
“Big brother, you said you’d take me home… You said it. You’re not allowed to go back on your word…”
The little girl walked toward him step by step, opening her arms toward him.
“Big brother, hug me… Big brother, take me home, take me home, okay…”
The little girl’s voice kept echoing in Gu Yi’s heart. With every word she said, Gu Yi found it harder to breathe. His body was no longer under his control, and he really opened his arms, letting the little girl throw herself into his embrace.
“Hehe, big brother, you’re so good. Big brother, you’re so good…”
The little girl raised her face in his arms. Gu Yi looked down at her, and abruptly, his body stiffened.
Blood, so much blood, seeped from the little girl’s head and gradually ran down, covering her entire face.
Gu Yi was shocked. He wanted to cry out, but he could not open his mouth. He could only watch helplessly as that blood flowed more and more, more and more…
The little girl still had a smile on her face. Her teeth were white, and before long, they too were stained red by the blood.
Gu Yi wanted to move, but he felt terribly pained inside, as if the little girl’s sorrow had flowed into his heart like that blood. He knew what he was doing, and he also knew the little girl was not human, but it seemed he had stepped into some kind of barrier and could not get out.
“Break!”
At that moment, a loud shout came from beside Gu Yi’s ear.
He suddenly came back to his senses and immediately took a deep breath!
He looked around the corridor. Nothing had changed, but in his arms, there was no little girl anymore.
Gu Yi was still shaken, feeling as if his whole heart had been rescued from an icy cavern and had begun beating again.
He straightened up, and Xia Wan’er and Qing Sang hurried over to him.
Xia Wan’er was still holding talisman paper in her hand. Just now, that barrier had been dispelled by her.
Gu Yi looked at her gratefully. Xia Wan’er tugged on his arm and said with concern, “Yiyi, are you okay? I already thought you were acting weird just now. Luckily we came out in time, otherwise you would’ve been bewitched by that ghost. What would I use to make it up to Boss Bo?”
Qing Sang looked around and said, “The malevolent qi here is very heavy. Did you two run into anything strange just now?”
Xia Wan’er immediately thought of that doll and blurted out, “Yes, yes, we just picked up a doll from the floor. It was very strange, though I put a suppressing evil talisman on it. In theory, a normal little ghost shouldn’t have been able to get out.”
Qing Sang looked at her and said, “That can only mean that whatever is inside that doll is not some little ghost. It must be lingering here for a purpose. You should have burned it with dao fire.”
Xia Wan’er smiled sweetly and said, “Hehe, but dao fire talismans are expensive… Besides, after using dao fire, I probably wouldn’t have had the strength to attend the class reunion anymore. Also, Yiyi told me. He said that doll might be waiting for its owner. If we burned it, wouldn’t that be a bit mean?”
“You, if you used up all your dao fire talismans, I can give you some. Now that thing has escaped, and a perfectly good class reunion, who knows what it will turn into.”
Qing Sang helplessly shook his head, but his tone was very gentle. He took a pure silver compass out of his Baxi, and the compass had an antique look. The patterns carved on the underside were intricate and ornate, very beautiful.
It was the first time Gu Yi had seen things like this, and he also felt somewhat enlightened.
Xia Wan’er looked full of disappointment. “Sigh, a perfectly good class reunion, and in the end we still have to catch ghosts. By the way, Yiyi, did you see that ghost just now? What did it look like?”
Gu Yi said, “It was a little girl around ten years old. There was water under her feet, and her head was constantly bleeding.”
“Ah!” Suddenly, Xia Wan’er screamed. She pinched her nose and pointed at Gu Yi’s clothes. “Yiyi, why are your clothes all wet? And there’s such a disgusting smell!”
Gu Yi lowered his head. Indeed, the suit on his chest was completely soaked, as if he could wring water out of it.
Not only that, the water gave off a fishy, foul smell, the same as the smell he had caught from the little girl.
That’s right, he had just hugged that little girl. Everything that happened in the barrier had really existed, it was not his illusion. These water stains were the best proof.
But why? If that little girl was lingering here for a purpose, and he had nothing to do with her at all, why would she target him and even ask him to hug her?
Gu Yi could not understand.
After her shock, Xia Wan’er rested her chin in her hand and fell into thought. “A little girl around ten years old, a doll, and ten really is the age for playing with dolls. Could it be that little girl is the vengeful spirit living inside the doll? Because I used a suppressing evil talisman on it, it got unhappy and came out to take revenge? Then it should have come straight for me. Why did it latch onto Yiyi?”
Qing Sang focused on the pointer of the compass and said, “Don’t try to guess a vengeful spirit’s mind. The fact that it appeared here definitely means something bad is about to happen.”
At that moment, the pointer stopped in the direction of their private room.
Qing Sang’s pupils contracted. “Bad.”
He immediately ran toward the private room.
“Come on, Yiyi, let’s follow too!”
Xia Wan’er hurriedly took Gu Yi’s hand.
After entering the private room, they heard a burst of fierce quarreling.
It was a husband and wife who had come to the class reunion together. They had been university classmates and later formed a family. Coming to the class reunion together had originally been a heartwarming story, and everyone admired and envied them. At least, when Gu Yi left the room, the two of them were still fine. But now, for some reason, they were fighting furiously, their faces red with rage.
Their arguing grew louder and louder, and in the end they even started hitting each other.
“What right do you have to say you’ve had a hard time? Huh? Did you take care of the child? Did you hand over your salary? I’m both father and mother by myself, and I still have to serve your whole family. Did I owe you in my previous life!?” the woman shouted as she yanked the man’s hair.
The man was also furious. He slapped the woman across the face. “If I had known back then that after marriage you’d be like this, I’d have died before marrying you! What’s so great about taking care of a child? Women all over the world can give birth. Just because you have a uterus, you think you’re amazing? Are you the greatest or what? My family is your family too!”
After being hit, the woman became even more enraged. She grabbed the teacup on the table and smashed it at the man. He failed to dodge and was instantly smashed until his head was bloodied. The woman cried and shouted, “You bastard! You care about face in front of classmates, but I don’t, is that it? Those rotten things you did, I didn’t expose them for you. That was my last bit of tolerance for you. If you dare hit me again in the future, believe it or not, I’ll die in front of you!”
“Haha, fine, you bitch, go die! If you die, I can just get a new wife. Hurry up, if you’re going to die, then die. So many classmates are here to witness it. If you die, I don’t know how happy I’d be!”
“Fine, don’t regret it!”
After saying that, the woman cried as she went to climb out the window.
“Hey!”
Everyone in the private room was terrified. This husband and wife had always been loving. How could they argue like this today, and still at a class reunion?
Could it be that all their affection was fake, and this was their true nature?
Those who could try to talk them down tried to talk them down, and those who could stop them tried to stop them. The whole private room fell into chaos.
At that moment, the power suddenly went out in the private room!
The whole room went dark. Everyone’s eyes could not adjust for a moment, and some women who were afraid of the dark let out terrified screams.
“Ah——!”
In the darkness, everyone could not tell who was who, and they rushed around like headless flies.
Gu Yi was also among the crowd. He could not see the figures of those people, but he could clearly see one person.
The woman who had just been arguing.
Gu Yi was stunned, and subconsciously tried to push through the crowd and run toward that woman.
No.
Don’t.
In the darkness, he clearly saw that woman walk toward the windowsill, then push open the window and easily climb onto the windowsill.
She stood on the windowsill, her long hair blown by the wind. Gu Yi quickened his pace and ran toward her, but no matter what, he could not get close to that windowsill. He wanted to shout, but his voice seemed to have gone hoarse. He could only make bursts of breathy sounds. Just as he felt he was about to reach the woman’s side, she slowly turned around and smiled at him.
It carried no warmth at all, a very strange smile.
In that instant, Gu Yi vaguely saw someone push the woman.
A black handprint appeared on her back.
That handprint was tiny, like a child’s hand.
The woman fell from the windowsill.
Gu Yi was shocked. At the same time, a lively, cheerful laugh rang in his ear.
“Hehe… hehe…”
Gu Yi was very familiar with this voice. Just now in the corridor, the little girl’s voice when she spoke had also been like this, sharp and piercing.
Qing Sang’s compass had not been wrong. That little girl was right there in this private room.
What did she want to do?
Gu Yi raised his head, and the lights in the private room suddenly came on.
The light stabbed at his eyes, and he narrowed them slightly.
“What happened? Did the power just go out? Scared me to death!”
“My God, a five-star hotel even had a blackout. I’m never coming here again. Seriously!”
Everyone complained one after another, completely failing to notice that one person was missing.
When Gu Yi opened his mouth again, he found that he could speak. He immediately turned around and shouted, “Someone jumped off the building! Hurry and call 120!”
“What!?”
Only then did everyone notice the open window. They ran toward the window, and when they saw the woman, their former classmate, lying in a pool of blood downstairs, they all let out miserable screams.
“Ah——!”
The most devastated was the man who had just argued with that woman, her husband. He could not accept this outcome and burst into heart-rending sobs. In his despair, that man also could not think straight anymore. He simply slammed his head into the wall and died on the spot.