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"Then, what happened next?" Despite it being daytime, Meng Zhuang was still visibly shaken as he cautiously asked Li Zhisheng. Li Zhisheng continued, "Then, when I turned the office lights back on, I found a note with an address written on it at my feet, while my colleague had vanished..." Aside from Meng Zhuang's fright, both Hu Fang and I listened intently.
I couldn't help myself; I picked up the note from the floor and rushed to the broken window to take a look. To my shock, I discovered that my colleague was lying downstairs, his limbs twisted in an unnatural way. Seeing this, I didn’t think twice and grabbed my phone to call the police.
When the police arrived, they initially suspected I was trying to cover up a crime. However, after reviewing the office surveillance footage, they realized that my colleague had inexplicably run to the window and jumped out when the lights went out.
With my suspicion of murder cleared, I handed over the note with the address to the police. My intuition told me that this address concealed some dark secret.
Sure enough, the next day I saw on the news that two dismembered bodies had been found at that address—a man and a woman. Investigations revealed that the murderer was indeed my deceased colleague...
Upon hearing this, I sighed, "Ah, as the saying goes, infidelity leads to death." Hu Fang muttered beside me, "Even if he cheated, there was no need to kill. Even if that ghost didn’t seek revenge on him, eventually the truth would come out. At that point, he’d still end up paying for it—what a poor bargain."
Li Zhisheng caught Hu Fang's murmurs and replied seriously, "In such moments, it's hard for people to remain rational; they can easily make regrettable decisions. Most of the time, we can only pray that such things don’t happen to us."
"Meal time! Meal time!" came the call of a crew member from nearby. "Is it already time for dinner? Are you all hungry?" I asked.
Hu Fang raised two fingers immediately: "Two servings with meat, please!" Just as she finished speaking, a crew member pushed a food cart past us and heard Hu Fang's order. She asked, "We have chicken, beef, or pork—what would you like?"
Hu Fang ordered one of each—chicken and beef—while Li Zhisheng, Meng Zhuang, and I also bought a box each and began eating. The taste wasn’t great but sufficient to fill our stomachs.
After dinner, watching the scenery rush by outside and listening to the announcements playing in the carriage made me reminisce about those early days when I started my business years ago. Though it was tough then, life felt fulfilling and happiness came more easily.
"There’s still some time before bed; who wants to tell a story next?" Li Zhisheng interrupted my thoughts with his question.
Hearing him ask, we four exchanged glances, hoping one of us would take the lead.
"Since none of you are willing, I'll go ahead..." Hu Fang said. I thought to myself that while I had heard stories from Meng Zhuang and Li Zhisheng before, I had never heard Hu Fang's tale. What kind of experiences would she share...?
Thinking about it, I said, "Alright, since you draw horror comics, your storytelling must be better than ours, right?"
Hu Fang raised a finger and shook it side to side. "No, the story I want is based on real events..." With that, Hu Fang pulled out a thumb-sized bottle from her bag and said, "Here, this is what was left behind at that time."
The moment I saw the bottle, I felt a jolt run through me. Li Zhisheng also recognized what was inside the bottle; he turned his head and frowned at me, as if to say that what Hu Fang wanted was not simple.
Meng Zhuang, however, didn’t think much and exclaimed, "Hey? Isn't this Ghost Oil?"
Since I had never discussed with Hu Fang what Ghost Oil was, and Meng Zhuang wasn’t present when I applied it in the house, she had no idea what Meng Zhuang was referring to.
"Ghost Oil? What is that?" Hu Fang asked in confusion. I thought for a moment and decided it was better not to tell her about it; otherwise, she definitely wouldn't keep the Ghost Oil. So I quickly interjected before Meng Zhuang could explain, "What Ghost Oil? Meng Zhuang is mistaken; it's Gui Oil, which is oil extracted from osmanthus flowers... You know Osmanthus Cake? Yes, that's made from this stuff."
Hu Fang skeptically brought the bottle to her nose and sniffed it. "Hmm~ It doesn’t smell like osmanthus; it has a hint of jasmine... and a bit of a foul odor. Is it spoiled? If it were osmanthus oil, I've always wanted to learn how to make Osmanthus Cake. When we get back, I'll make some for you."
Hearing this, Li Zhisheng looked at me with a mocking expression on his face, as if to say, "This is the mess you've gotten into; let's see how you explain later. Osmanthus oil? Good luck eating that."
I pretended to cough a couple of times and replied nonchalantly, "Cough cough~ Actually, I'm a bit allergic to osmanthus; I don't really like eating Osmanthus Cake. Why don’t you just tell your story instead..."
"Alright then..." After thinking for a moment, Hu Fang put away the bottle of Ghost Oil and began to tell her story...
This was my story from when I was around twelve or thirteen years old. One summer vacation, I went traveling with my parents. I can't quite remember where we went; all I recall is that our bus broke down midway. Since the area was quite remote and repairs would take some time, we had no choice but to stay overnight at a nearby mountain village.
Aside from our family of three, there were seven or eight other people from the bus. A middle-aged woman from the village took us in while the others were distributed among several other households in the village. The driver stayed behind to fix the bus overnight and would come back to notify us once it was ready.
The middle-aged woman who took us in was very hospitable and made me lots of delicious food in the evening. However, for some reason, everyone else in the village seemed to avoid her like she was a plague; she herself didn’t seem to care at all.
Later, during their conversation, I learned that this middle-aged woman’s surname was Wang. She had married into the village years ago, but shortly after her marriage, her husband died mysteriously. Then, both her father-in-law and mother-in-law drowned in their home...
"What? Drowned in their home? What kind of death is that?" I asked in confusion.
"I’m not sure about the details, but I vaguely remember that her in-laws drowned themselves using a basin of water. At the time, I even tried it myself, and it was impossible to drown unless someone held you under the water. Besides, even if someone pushed you into a basin of water, you could still save yourself by drinking it... Anyway, don’t interrupt me; just listen and you’ll understand," Hu Fang explained impatiently.
After that incident, the villagers began to avoid this middle-aged woman named Wang as if she were a harbinger of doom, believing she had caused the deaths of her husband and his family. Some even claimed she was responsible for their deaths. Despite the rampant rumors, no one could provide concrete evidence to prove she was guilty.
That night, I couldn’t sleep due to the heat and the mosquitoes buzzing around me. My body was covered in itchy welts, making it even harder to fall asleep. Meanwhile, my parents seemed to be sleeping soundly for some reason; no matter how much I called them, they didn’t respond. So, I decided to go out to the yard alone to cool off.
As soon as I stepped into the yard, I heard the sounds of chirping insects all around me. Fireflies occasionally flitted by, and since I had lived in the city all my life and rarely saw fireflies, I felt curious and wanted to catch one to take a closer look.
However, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t catch one. I chased after them for a while until I realized I had wandered to the edge of a large pond.
The pure white moonlight reflected off the deep blue water of the pond, while fireflies danced around it like stars decorating a galaxy.
I stood there mesmerized by such beauty, feeling my sweaty body gradually cool down.
I don’t know how long I stood there when suddenly a gentle breeze swept across the surface of the water, creating ripples. At that moment, the previously noisy chirping ceased abruptly, plunging the entire world into silence.
A chilling sensation washed over me, making me shiver involuntarily. I thought to myself, "Now that it’s cooler, I should head back; otherwise my parents will worry if they see I'm missing."
Just as I turned to leave, I felt as if something had glued my feet to the ground; no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t move an inch.
Looking down, I discovered that my ankles were entangled in clumps of weeds from the edge of the pond. No matter how much I pulled at them, it was futile; instead, they cut into my skin and left me with painful scratches.
Blood trickled down my palm, and the pain and fear caused my young mind to spiral into madness. I crouched down, hugging my knees and crying out loud, repeatedly calling for my parents, hoping they could hear me and come to save me.
In that moment, time seemed to stand still; the entire world was drowned out by my own cries.
Suddenly, there was a splash from the pond, and a decayed, swollen hand reached out from the water's edge, gripping my leg tightly. The shock of this unexpected horror silenced my screams. I stared in terror, unable to make a sound; I could only let that rotten, foul-smelling arm hold me captive.
Just when despair began to engulf me, the owner of that arm slowly emerged from the water. A head, soaked and swollen like a waterlogged ball, surfaced. As it broke free from the water's surface, its face splattered with a putrid liquid that sprayed outwards, some of it even hitting my face.
Fear, helplessness, and despair intertwined within me. At that moment, I wished I could just faint away, but I couldn't. Even closing my eyes felt impossible, as if some mysterious force compelled me to gaze at the nauseating creature before me.
"Are you back again?!" Suddenly, a deep and calm woman's voice echoed behind me. It felt like a lifeline as I turned to look back with tear-filled eyes.
To my astonishment, standing behind me was none other than the middle-aged woman with the surname Wang who had offered us shelter…
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