A Guest In A Ghost House

After the call went through, I could hear a strange voice answer from the other end, "h.e.l.lo?". From that one-word response I couldn"t tell if it was man or woman who had answered. This was my first time hearing Qi Lin"s strange voice. His tone was insipid, lacking all emotion and it seemed his words were drawn out, almost as if he was doing it on purpose. Was He Xiaoyong right? Was it possible he was still angry?

He Xiaoyong looked at me, not knowing what to say. I kept my mouth closed but motioned with my hand to keep going. He nodded, "Qi Lin, Zhang Xue is dead. Chen Qianqian also saw a dead mouse and today we actually met a ghost."

"Oh"

He Xiaoyong was surprised by Qi Lin"s simple answer, but continued, "Where are you now? I`d like to see you. Right now we are staying with Qianqian."

"Xi Shan"

This time, he did not wait for He Xiaoyong to ask, Qi Lin"s voice commanded, "Come. All of you, come."

He Xiaoyong didn"t know how to respond, even I was speecless. He decided to answer him with a simple question, "Are you in Xi Shan park?"

"Xi Shan. Come. All of you, come." Qi Lin repeated.

Hearing Qi Lin"s voice again, I felt cold for no reason and scared by his tone. He Xiaoyong seemed to feel the same, his face turned pale. No matter what He Xiaoyong would say to him, it seemed Qi Lin would just repeat what he had just said. He Xiaoyong casually said his goodbye and hung up the phone.

After a while, I asked, "Xiaoyong, is Qi Lin always like this?"

He Xiaoyong almost immediately cried, "No, never! Do you think he"s possessed or something?"

I shook my head, since it was Chen Qianqian that saw the dead mouse, the ghost"s next target must be Chen Qianqian. Why would the ghost possess Qi Lin? Though I must admit, Qi Lin"s reaction was really strange, It was not a reaction a normal person should ever have.

Xi Shan, I knew that place. A few years ago Xi Shan began to undergo serious development. The biggest park in the county was established there, but few people ever wanted to visit it. Xi Shan city was a bit too far from downtown. It was a little too far away to get there walking. Not to mention, there was a graveyard behind the Xi Shan park, so few people were willing to go on their free time.

Qi Lin had said he was in Xi Shan, so was he in Xi Shan park or in the Xi Shan graveyard? My mind began to flood with all kinds of ridiculous ideas.

I shook my head quickly, hoping to rid myself of these strange ideas. Chen Qianqian was beginning to calm down, so I suggested we go and check out the abandoned toilet.

The problem was getting more and more complicated and other people wanted to fix it as soon as possible.

The middle school was nicknamed the "Ace school" by the locals. It was worthy of it"s name, since all the students who took the university entrance exam in that school would typically ace it with ease. To be honest, this was my Alma mater. Unfortunately, I had never heard the rumors about the haunted toilet. I had never even been to the abandoned toilet because it was near the girl"s dormitory building at the time. Now it was the teacher"s family building, where the staff would live.

When we entered the school, we went straight to our target"s location. Fortunately for us, everyone was on vacation, so n.o.body would notice us sneaking in.

The toilet was not large, the same as many school toilets. The only strange thing was that the toilet was very clean and it seemed no one had been using it. If it wasn"t for the worn-out doors, I would have thought it was a brand new bathroom.

I wondered out loud, "Has this toilet never been used before?" I was curious about this latest discovery. The toilet was accessible to the public and it was right next to the family building. Common sense would dictate that at least someone had used the toilet.

Unable to answer my question, He Xiaoyong pulled me into the lady"s room, pointing to the middle stall, where there were traces of used candles and said, "Before we went to the ghost house, we played Die Xian right here. "

He Xiaoyong seemed a little afraid and Huang Lei was frequently looking behind him. He Xiaoru and Chen Qianqian dared not enter the bathroom at all.

In the ladies room, I looked around for any potential clues. After staying in the ghost house as long as I had, I came to learn that ghosts would generally leave some kind of sign that they had been there. But here, it seemed everything was very clean and had no trace of ghosts whatsoever. There wasn"t even any residual Yin Qi that I could detect.

I was still on high alert as He Xiaoyong, Huang Lei and I walked out of the bathroom and sat down in the school pavilion. Could it be that because the ghost had already possessed Qi Lin, there was no longer anything strange about the toilet?

Something seemed wrong. If there were no signs of ghosts in the toilet and they didn"t provoke a ghost here, then where did the ghost they were being haunted by come from?

I asked them again what happened that night and their answers remained the same. After they played Die Xian in the toilet, they went to the ghost house, and were then driven away by my presence.

It seemed that the only clue now was Qi Lin. I felt cold again when the thought of Qin Lin entered my mind. Qi Lin gave me a strange feeling. I still remembered seeing "him" as a girl with long hair, but it seems she was a man with short hair. His voice from the phone was still haunting me.

He Xiaoru asked me if I wanted to go to Xi Shan to find Qi Lin.

"AHH!!" --I hadn"t replied, instead I was interrupted by Chen Qianqian"s involuntary scream. It looked like she wouldn"t be joining us. He Xiaoyong and Huang Lei also looked scared, although they said nothing, it seemed that they didn"t want to go to Xi Shan. I even hesitated and thought up a way out.

He Xiaoyong and Qi Lin had been friends for many years, everyone present knew where Qi Lin lived and was familiar with his parents. I asked He Xiaoyong to inquire about Qi Lin"s present situation secretly. Meanwhile, I was to go to work at night and talk with Lulu. As Yan"er had said, if I could convince Lulu to go with me, there would be no reason to be afraid, even if Qi Lin really was a ghost (or possessed by one). If what she said was true, Lulu could suppress most ghosts and that would make me feel a lot safer.

Of course, I wasn"t going to tell my present company about Lulu.

We started moving separately, He Xiaoru did not know Qi Lin so she preferred not to go along with them. She instead followed me to the ghost house. On the way to the ghost house, she asked me about everything that happened yesterday. I thought for a while and decided to tell her everything I knew about the ghost house. After hearing my side of the story, He Xiaoru was stunned. She then asked if the ghost house served women. I instantly understood what she meant, she wanted to give her patronage to the ghost house. She really was amazing. Even though she was so scared last time, she still dared to visit the ghost house once more.