After the minor scuffle at the temple, Fan Zheng and the rest toured the village. Jiang Li took the chance to return into the necklace when they became distracted. Although the item had no expensive gem on it and was just a simple jade, he found it a comfortable place to reside since it belonged to Margarette"s reincarnation. He was especially happy. The girl had no whatsoever blood relations.h.i.+p with him, which meant the only headache he would have to worry about in the future was his ghost ident.i.ty. Lunchtime then arrived. They went to the village head"s house where they were invited for a meal and then went back to the house lent to them. It was coincidentally the one where Jiang Li"s family used to live.
The group chatted the afternoon away. They first talked about what they would do upon leaving. When the topic went to random stuff like this product and that TV drama, Jiang Li became bored.
He began to think about the future, specifically, a certain somebody"s gruesome fate.
He was not sure why the locals only acted three days later. But he couldn"t simply sit still and wait for that day to arrive. So what should he do?
After discovering the male lead was stupid as h.e.l.l, he started to ponder over guiding them to properly punish the guilty villagers, or simply destroy the village. In all honesty, with his views more biased now that he knew Zhan Rong was the one destined to die in that great escape, he was leaning towards the latter.
Why let a d.a.m.n place like that exist after all? Even now, he was very flabbergasted that Fan Zheng left the cleanup of these devils to the law. However, when he thought of the villainess whose hatred for the villagers should be the strongest amongst all others, he decided to leave it to her. Better if she would be more preoccupied with her revenge on the devils that she would forget about the leads. As long as the village was not wiped out before her appearance, this possibility should not be that improbable.
So now, what about Fan Zheng"s group?
When the system finally responded hours later, after interrogating why it disappeared for a day, he chose one of the options allowing him to communicate with them. When night time arrived, he fulfilled his promise of drilling some sense into their minds, beating them up and turning their sweet dreams into nightmares. He even started a game befitting his status as a bad spirit…
The remaining days were destined to be lively.
...
Two men covertly entered the ancestral hall of the village. The village head with a kind expression plastered on his face appeared and welcomed them.
"Welcome and thank you for dropping by."
The big man with a muscled body dressed in a thick black jacket nodded at him. "Think of us as envoys. Same rules. Our team is pa.s.sing by this region tonight and if we don"t return, they will automatically know your people are interested in our goods."
"Can we a.s.sume it is a yes?" asked the companion of the man, another burly guy with a dragon tattoo on his exposed arm.
The middle-aged village head laughingly nodded. "Of course. There is no need to ask, Mr. Feng. We have always been interested. Come with me, we prepare some good food and drinks as thanks for your efforts," said Zhao Guo with a flattering demeanor.
The two seemed pleased and gave him a huge smile. They followed him as he led them to his house through the backdoor. The one with tattoos did not forget to give the other a few compliments and a heads up about their "goods" that made the village head look forward to the people who would be arriving later.
Thinking of the other batch of visitors though, Zhao Guo momentarily frowned.
He almost forgot about them. If the sellers held the auction at the usual spot, there would be a large chance to be discovered by those youngsters then. He didn"t want to imagine what would happen then, the headache he and his people would have to face. Letting them stay in a house nearby had been his blunder.
"It would be odd if I ask those kids to change place."
After a minute of careful pondering, Zhao Guo shrugged.
"I guess there"s no other way but inform everyone to change the venue. For the sake of the village."
…
It was a moonless night. The surrounding was very quiet.
Fan Zheng"s group was sleeping on the floor next to each other, in the living room of the house lent to them. There was only one candle on a gla.s.s atop the low table giving off light for the whole room. When the sleeping students opened their eyes at the same time, it flickered due to the slight wind that got in from the gaps in the bamboo-woven window.
Yup. All of a sudden, these eight people woke up from their sleep, all looking so shocked and scared.
"B-brother!" Fan Lan"s voice was trembling when she went to the male lead"s side. Without glancing at the others who had also inched towards Fan Zheng, she said anxiously, "I, I just had a nightmare. It"s really scary."
Fright was still dancing in the eyes of the girl. It seemed whatever she had seen in her dreams had truly left her scared. She hugged her brother"s arm.
The reactions of the others were not as exaggerated. However, their eyes were really wide and they kept roaming them around. When they heard the girl mentioning "nightmare" they unconsciously started to hold their breath.
Zhan Rong"s slightly shaky voice rang just then, something rarely heard as their beautiful friend was the type who could usually remain calm no matter the situation. "Everyone," she paused for a while to swallow some saliva. "I think.. there"s something on the ceiling..."
It was not only the male lead who froze in place, the rest of their companions too. The girl"s message was not giving them a good feeling.
"W-what"s there?" asked Guo Hanying whose back was already drenched in a cold sweat. She didn"t dare raise her head. The fear of the unknown was rus.h.i.+ng over her like a tide.
Her good friend looked around and noticed that the others were the same, they were afraid. What if something unspeakably horrifying was there?
Only Fan Zheng slowly looked up, something he only braved doing after repeatedly reminding himself that he was a spirit hunter.
Not long after, when the remaining six saw him only fixing his eyes above without screaming or saying anything, all of them exchanged glances before summoning the courage to check it out. It should not be that scary if their two friends could persist, right?
How wrong they was, they only found out a couple of moments later.
They copied the two.
Fear then registered in their eyes, so was regret.
For a full minute, none of them spoke.
"We"re haunted.... right?" An Ming felt his throat dry.
Only one person replied to him.
"I"m sure it"s the spirit we freed from the abandoned temple," Fan Zheng weakly said. "It"s toying with us. It is aware of its power and is using it to scare us. It"s obvious it is very evil."
Everyone hugged themselves. The room that was barely lit by the lamp became several degrees colder. Another bout of silence pa.s.sed before it was broken.
"He said his name is Li… The same name as the one who talked to us through the board. He pulled me into a terrible nightmare," a boy"s voice trailed off while trembling.
"Funnily, I experienced the same… in my dreams, I, I was beaten to death… woke up… only to find out I was in sleep paralysis, and the ghost was standing right beside me... Can you imagine how scared sh*tless I was that time?"
"... We don"t need to imagine… We went through it too."
They all exchanged glances again. It was now confirmed what they dreamed of was shared by the rest of those in the room.
Thinking they had not actually escaped from those dirty things after all, they felt helpless and depressed.
Only Zhan Rong and Fan Zheng were in deep contemplation.
The former wanted to talk about the b.l.o.o.d.y message above detailing a game that would most likely make them turn against each other. But looking at how everyone in the room was wallowing in a depressing mood, she kept her silence.
Fan Lan hugged her brother, her tears like a broken string of pearls rolling down her face, "Brother... I really regret it. Had I known this would happen, I would have just stayed home. I would have been more filial and obedient to mom and dad. I really regret it. I don"t like this. Brother, take me home, please! Please!"
Of course, her pleas resulted in nothing. Fan Zheng"s mind was occupied by the nightmare and he prioritized collecting information about the malicious spirit from the people who had pulled it into their realm.
…