Translator: CinderTL
After recounting the scene he had witnessed at Miss Lin's gate, Huai Yi still shuddered at the memory of the woman's figure, gripped by lingering fear.
Given his experience, he shouldn't have been so terrified. But this wasn't a mission; this sudden supernatural encounter in the real world had caught him completely off guard.
"What's wrong with you?" Huai Yi asked Jiang Cheng, who was clearly shaken by something.
"The Miss Lin you saw earlier wasn't right," Jiang Cheng replied. "She was a fake."
Huai Yi already knew this. Based on his mission experience, he was ninety percent certain that the woman he had seen wasn't human but a ghost.
In other words, he had just faced a supernatural event. Fortunately, he hadn't entered the house; otherwise, not even the gods could have saved him.
"Not long after you hung up, we received a call from Miss Lin," Jiang Cheng continued. "She asked why we hadn't arrived yet."
"Two Miss Lins..." Huai Yi thought, inwardly shuddering. "That confirms the one I saw was definitely a ghost."
But Jiang Cheng's next words truly startled him, sending his recently calmed heart racing once more.
"Miss Lin said on the phone that this isn't her home at all," Jiang Cheng recounted. "She's never claimed to live here; her home is in Peacock Bay. After we explained the situation, she insisted on coming herself to figure out what was going on."
Fatty chimed in, "Before we could talk her out of it, she hung up. Not long after, she called again, saying she was nearby and asked us to send her our location so she could meet up with us."
Hearing this, Huai Yi felt a growing unease. Was this Miss Lin being a little too reckless?
"That's not the main point!" Fatty, as if reading Huai Yi's thoughts, repeated the doctor's earlier analysis verbatim. "Here, take a look at this first." He pulled out his phone, opened a navigation app, and showed Huai Yi a marked red route.
"Look, this is our current location," Fatty said, pointing to one end of the marked route on his phone. Then he pointed to the other end. "And this is where Miss Lin started from—Peacock Bay Community."
The route zigzagged wildly, appearing incredibly complex. More importantly, the distance was considerable, with one point in the west of the city and the other in the southeast.
"But even with such a long distance, Miss Lin called to say she'd arrived nearby less than twenty minutes after hanging up," Fatty said, swallowing hard. "Did she fly here?"
"This... could the Miss Lin who called us also be a ghost?" Huai Yi's face paled, regretting not consulting the almanac before leaving home.
"So, what did you guys end up doing?" Huai Yi asked, looking up. He figured ghosts wouldn't be easy to shake off; without an address, they'd likely keep pestering them.
Hearing this, Fatty's expression suddenly brightened, and he gazed at the doctor with newfound reverence. "The doctor told her his phone was about to die and asked her to write down another number to call back."
"Another number?" Huai Yi was puzzled. "Whose?"
Noticing Huai Yi staring at him, Jiang Cheng rubbed his nose awkwardly. "She was a girl who used to chase after me. After being rejected too many times, she snapped and became obsessed with killing me so she could possess me completely and not have to share me with anyone else."
"People like that actually exist?" Huai Yi asked, genuinely baffled.
"You probably wouldn't know her," Jiang Cheng said wistfully. "Her name was Xia Meng, and she used to be a good girl too."
"What she used to be doesn't matter anymore. You couldn't just stand there and let her kill you, could you?" Huai Yi countered. "I think you handled this perfectly, Brother Jiang. You can't be too kind. Anyway, let's not dwell on this. What's our next move?"
Jiang Cheng and Huai Yi had both kept their phones switched off, and Miss Lin hadn't called again, suggesting her abilities were mediocre.
If a truly formidable entity had been involved, simply turning off or even discarding the phone wouldn't have helped. The device would have reappeared—in their pockets, in the car, or even next to their pillows while they slept.
Ghosts rarely communicated with humans unless they were disguised, which relieved Jiang Cheng of any lingering concerns.
Even if Xia Meng's experts had dealt with the ghost, it wouldn't have betrayed Huai Yi's involvement.
Driving back was out of the question. Looking back, the area seemed unnaturally dark, the dim light from the streetlights strangely subdued, as if suppressed by some unseen force. It created an unsettling atmosphere.
The Peacock Bay Community was eerily silent despite the numerous lit windows and parked cars. Since their arrival, they hadn't heard a single sound from any of the apartments.
The vast complex felt deathly still, the light spilling from the windows carrying a heavy, suffocating aura. From a distance, they resembled the eternal flames flickering before tombstones.
Huai Yi stared too long, startled by a morbid thought that suddenly surfaced from the depths of his mind.
One thing was certain: they couldn't stay here any longer.
Huai Yi suggested moving further away to a safer area, calling a taxi, and finding a hotel for the night—definitely not his old one.
Jiang Cheng shook his head in refusal. Seizing the opportunity, Fatty began to regale Huai Yi with tales of their previous encounter with a Ghost Taxi.
Even though the driver had been missing for days and his car was impounded at the police station, it had inexplicably reappeared before them, defying logic and time, and driven them far away.
If the Doctor hadn't been vigilant and insisted on getting out, they might have ended up who-knows-where.
"Where should we go now?" Huai Yi looked around. The area didn't feel safe at all, especially with the dark lake so close to the road.
The lake's water was pitch-black, like a bottomless abyss. After staring for a while, Huai Yi even thought he could become a supernatural film director.
No elaborate sets would be needed—this place was perfect. All he'd have to do was suspend an actress above the lake, her feet dangling in the water. Dressed in crimson ancient robes with flowing sleeves, she'd lower her head and hum an eerie, forgotten folk tune.
Suddenly, Jiang Cheng, who was leading the way, stopped abruptly. Huai Yi, still lost in his cinematic thoughts, bumped into him.
Fatty immediately scanned their surroundings, crouching warily. "What's wrong, Doctor?"
Huai Yi snapped out of his creative reverie and copied Fatty's cautious glances.
"Did you hear something?" Jiang Cheng asked after a moment's pause.
Huai Yi suddenly felt an ominous premonition. "What's that sound?"
"It sounds like... someone's singing," Jiang Cheng said uncertainly.
(End of the Chapter)
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