Chapter 157: Leading the Charge
A tall, thin man was complaining with his two friends about how poor the town's infrastructure was, while still holding onto the stair railing and hurrying down two steps at a time.
"Looks like this whole area has lost power."
"If there's no electricity here, the internet café must be packed, right?"
"So hurry the hell up! Stop dragging your feet! We’ll lose our spot!"
They were chatting and walking when the tall, thin man suddenly stopped. He looked down in surprise, a little unsure.
"I think I just kicked something?"
"Probably just a bottle someone knocked over."
Besides paintings, this hotel also had some modern decorations. Things like fake antique jars and vases to make the place look fancy.
The group didn’t think too much of it. The light from their lighters wasn’t enough to clearly see the ground anyway, so they just kept going downstairs.
Right after they left, Zhang Hui carefully arrived at the same spot, holding a candle.
He had planned to stay hidden in his room until those creepy people, who he suspected were ghosts, were gone. But when night came, his hunger was too much to bear, so he came down to the second floor’s common area to eat.
After eating, he didn’t bother with the elevator and took the stairs. On the way, he stopped by the banquet hall on the third floor to watch someone’s wedding. Then suddenly, the lights went out.
The banquet hall turned into a mess. Most guests left the hotel, leaving only a few elders from both families arguing with the manager.
Zhang Hui thought it was just a regular power outage. He was also worried someone might get trampled in the dark, so he waited until the crowd left. Then he grabbed a wedding candle and got ready to leave.
"Huh? I think I heard my cousin's voice?"
He looked up the stairs and scratched his head, but didn’t think much of it and kept walking down.
But just as he reached the landing between the first and second floor, he suddenly heard a clear voice calling out from the corner.
"Wait, wait for me!"
Cold sweat soaked the back of his shirt. Zhang Hui turned his head toward the corner, heart pounding so hard he could almost hear it.
"No way... Am I really that unlucky?"
He whispered to himself and tried to walk away, but then stopped.
What if it was a little girl, left behind and crying in the dark?
Although Zhang Hui used to skip school and hang out on the streets, his years in the army had changed him, he couldn’t just ignore something like that.
He sighed, forced down his fear, and moved the candlelight toward the corner, softly asking, "Little girl, are you okay?"
The flickering light pushed back the darkness. But all he saw was a round, black object in the corner.
He swallowed hard and gently kicked it with his foot.
The black ball rolled twice, and under the dim light of the candle, a face twisted by the flame came into view, a surprised expression frozen on it.
"Huh? You again?"
His heart skipped a beat. In an instant, his face turned pale, his legs gave out, and he dropped onto the floor with wide, terrified eyes.
A moment later, he couldn’t stop himself from screaming.
"Ahhhhhh!!!"
Almost at the same time, he heard fast footsteps from upstairs, along with a few voices.
"Xiao Jing! You scared someone again!"
"Told you not to come out!"
"Hurry, hurry! Don’t scare people to death!"
Li Mu was the first to enter Zhang Hui’s sight. He was holding a small hand, and following that hand, Zhang Hui saw it belonged to a headless girl.
“Hah! Hah~”
Zhang Hui was breathing heavily, like a machine blowing air. His chest rose and fell deeply, and he looked completely stunned.
The headless girl noticed her head in the corner. She happily ran over, her face full of joy.
“Finally found my head!”
She picked it up, then looked at Zhang Hui who was still sitting on the ground in shock. After thinking for a moment, she held out the head toward him and gave a devilish smile.
“Look! This is my head! Pretty, right?”
“......”
“Cut it out!” Li Mu walked over, glanced at his cousin on the ground, and said helplessly, “Didn’t I tell you to go back earlier?”
“What bad luck,” Yu Fan laughed behind him, clearly enjoying the situation.
Chen Yi gave a short cough. “Alright, we’ve got more to do. Let’s move.”
After getting scolded, Xiao Jing pouted unhappily. She was about to put her head back on her neck when suddenly Zhang Hui spoke up.
“You... you really are a ghost?”
Maybe because he had already seen too many weird things that day, Zhang Hui suddenly realized he wasn’t as scared as before.
At least, this ghost in front of him didn’t seem like she wanted to hurt him. She wasn’t like the ghosts in horror movies who kill people.
“What else would I be?” Xiao Jing rolled her eyes.
Zhang Hui slowly started to relax. He swallowed nervously and asked, “Then…”
Before he could finish, a hand suddenly reached out from behind Xiao Jing and pulled her hair, snatching her head away!
Xiao Jing looked confused and turned around to "look" behind her.
“Huh?”
Suddenly, a straight-blade knife was thrown through the air. With a loud “clang,” it stuck into the wall, hitting a shadow. The knife's handle vibrated, making a low humming sound.
“F***!” Chen Yi cursed. “Got him!”
Red lines of energy spread out from the knife, creeping into the shadow and trapping a vague, human-shaped figure against the wall. The shadow still had one hand outside of the darkness, and it was holding Xiao Jing’s head.
Yu Fan and Li Mu were shocked. They looked from the wall to Chen Yi, surprised he had acted so fast.
To be honest, they always thought of Chen Yi as a friendly uncle. But now they saw he had some serious skills.
“We caught it just like that?” Yu Fan still couldn’t believe it. “Why did it grab her head?”
“Probably wanted her body,” Chen Yi replied.
Xiao Jing’s body was high-quality. It could feel touch, taste things, and didn’t rot easily.
Li Mu walked up and looked at the shadow closely. He reached out, took Xiao Jing’s head back, and also studied the hand sticking out of the shadow.
After giving the head back to Xiao Jing, they all stood there, unsure what to do with the ghost trapped in the wall.
They hadn’t found the ghost’s real body, and catching just its shadow didn’t help much.
Also, the ghost was hiding in the darkness. Only its hand was sticking out. Even if they cut off that hand, it probably wouldn’t make a difference.
“So what now?”
Yu Fan asked. All three of them turned at the same time to look at Zhang Hui, who was still sitting on the ground in confusion.
Zhang Hui was already confused before. Now he was even more lost.
“Cousin, you stay here and keep watch,” Li Mu said, suddenly smiling. His eyes curved like little moons, and his smile was sweet. “Don’t let anyone else see this ghost.”
“???”
“We need to find the ghost’s real body. Staying here won’t help.”
“Huh?”
Before he could reply, Chen Yi turned and headed upstairs.
“Xiao Jing, come with me. We’ll check the paintings in the rooms.”
“Let’s go, let’s go!” Xiao Jing hugged her head and ran after him excitedly. She playfully lifted her head high and shouted. “Leading the charge! Oh yeah!”
Yu Fan immediately felt it was a good opportunity and looked at Li Mu with a smile.
“So, shall we…”
“Let’s go.”
Sadly, Li Mu didn't give Yu Fan a chance and immediately turned to leave.