She knew she couldn’t escape so she mustered up her courage and asked: “Where are you taking me?” Her voice sounded different due to her fear, but the paper driver didn’t respond.
“Just what do you guys want?”
The paper doll suddenly stood up from the driver’s seat and twisted around to face Xiao Xia: “Get down.” It spoke in a voice that sounded like cardboard being torn. Then, it deflated without warning like a leaking rubber ball.
Before Xiao Xia could react, she heard a bang. The three female ghosts’ bloodied faces were stuck flat against the glass of the windshield, staring malevolently at Xiao Xia.
You….cannot escape….
They knocked against the windows and violently shook the car as though trying to rip it and Xiao Xia apart. Suddenly, the terrified Xiao Xia was pulled downwards until she lay flat in the car.
No, it wasn’t a car. It was a long and slender enclosed space: a coffin. It turned out she had been inside this coffin the whole time after escaping the office building.
At this time, a large amount of joss paper rushed up from somewhere and plastered themselves against the coffin walls, preventing Xiao Xia from seeing the situation outside. She could also no longer hear the screams, curses and pounding. It was like she was wrapped in a cocoon. However, she wasn’t as comfortable as a baby silkworm. This was because in the darkness, she could see that paper doll stuck against the coffin’s lid, looking down at her from above. The painted smile and eyes looked at her blankly.
“We’ve reached our territory.” Its strange voice came from its strange and unmoving mouth.
I’m done for!
Xiao Xia thought in despair. She wasn’t able to be any more frightened, but she also wasn’t even able to faint. The terror actually made her mind especially clear. She felt they were continuously moving but had no idea where they were taking her. She also didn’t know what their intentions were. After what seemed like an eternity, she was suddenly thrown to the ground and things suddenly turned bright. She realized she was in a sparse grove. Her surroundings were quiet without any movements, as though it was all an illusion.
Could the spirits have been looking for entertainment, and she just happened to be unluckily chosen?
She looked around in alarm and felt the silence wasn’t normal. She pulled out her phone in panic and finally had the chance to do what she wanted to do ever since she was kidnapped.
“Ruan Zhan, save me!”
“Where are you?” He had a bad feeling and knew something must have happened.
“Fushan Cemetery.” An aged voice rang out from behind Xiao Xia. She dropped her phone in fright but Ruan Zhan had heard it clearly on the other end. He immediately grabbed his keys and ran out.
“What do you guys want?” Xiao Xia asked in panic.
Two elderly people stood in front of her, a man and a woman. The old woman was dressed in gorgeous burial clothes and the old man was dressed in a military uniform. They seemed to have been of high status when they were alive. Their faces were pale and rigid as expected of the dead, but didn’t seem to have malicious intent. However, anyone would be fearful when seeing ghosts at night, even if they had seen ghosts before.
Especially since along with a gust of chill wind, Xiao Xia saw dozens of spirits drift over from the trees. However, they didn’t make any moves against her and merely passed through her. Of course, this was still enough to give her the chills. Amongst them, she also saw Xiao Zhang. He smiled and nodded at her like they were acquaintances.
“Please, save my granddaughter!” The old woman said.
“Your granddaughter? Who’s she?” Xiao Xia looked around vigilantly. “What’s going on here?”
“Those three female ghosts refuse to give up. Our neighbors are going to help us drive them off!”
Neighbors? Of course, this was a cemetery. She could see the decorated gates of the cemetery from between the trees. However, did ghosts work together? Why didn’t they just bring her further inside instead of staying near the outskirts?
The old woman responded to her doubts: “This place is similar to the world of the living. There are neighbors and friends who will all help out when something happens. The reason we’ve brought you here is because there are those who shouldn’t be provoked further inside. They might end up scaring you!”
Wasn’t this scary enough? Those with slightly weaker nerves would probably have been scared to death at least three times already.
“What’s going on with those three female ghosts?”
“They are the three girls who died violent deaths at T. University.” The old woman confirmed Xiao Xia’s conjecture. “They know we want to ask you to save our granddaughter and will try to stop it by any means. Those who die violently are different from those who die of old age. They are very vicious. Therefore, we saved you and brought you here. This is our territory, and with the help of friends we can prevent them from harming you.”
Turns out this calamity was caused by one side wanting her help and the other not wanting to let her help. It had absolutely nothing to do with her. Her luck was truly awful! Furthermore, those three female ghosts were completely unreasonable, trying to stop her by killing her! After some thought, she figured out who these two elders were.
“The person you want me to save is Tao Xiao Chun, right?”
“That’s right. We are her grandparents.”
No wonder! Xiao Xia calmed down a little. Although it was still creepy talking to ghosts, they at least wouldn’t harm her since they had a request.
“But she went missing. Do you know where she is?”
The old woman revealed a sorrowful expression but there were no tears: “Xiao Chun is already dead!”
“What?!” Xiao Xia was astonished. “Dead? How did she die? How am I to save her if she’s already dead?”
“I want you to save her soul from the hands of the foreign evil spirit, and let her reunite with us.”
As expected! She had died at the hands of Bloody Mary.
“I thought she would know how to avoid the punishment for breaking the contract. How did she get attacked so quickly? How did you guys find out about it?”
“Before it happened, she had come to sweep our tombs. She said everything to our graves, including the fact you discovered her secret. If she stayed, she would either be killed by the foreign evil spirit or taken to the police station by you. She also said she wanted to leave a little something for the boy called Liu Tie before running far away. She was afraid she wouldn’t be able to visit us for a long time. Unfortunately it was daytime so we were unable to stop her. As you know, she vanished right after leaving. We clearly sensed that she had already died, but couldn’t find her soul. We figured it was definitely captured by the foreign evil spirit.”
“So you guys thought to come find me?” What a unique way of asking for help. What if they accidentally scared her to death? “Why not just visit me in my dreams?”
“We’ve tried to do so, but weren’t even able to get close to that place you’re staying at. We knew you must have a skilled person by your side. Therefore, we could only invite you here like this.”
Moving into Ruan Zhan’s place was really wise! Xiao Xia didn’t forget to be impressed by her own foresight. However, she should have stayed by his side the whole time. It would have been even safer!
“Can you help us out, Miss Yue?” The old woman asked anxiously.
“Do you know what she did?” Xiao Xia furrowed her brows. If Tao Xiao Chun was still alive, she might not be willing to save her. After all, she had harmed four classmates for her own selfishness, killing three and turning one insane. If she wasn’t punished according to the law, how could it be reasonable? But as the saying goes, death absolves all debts. She could consider helping her escape the evil spirit’s control and return to her grandparents. The old woman’s expression aroused her compassion. She felt that her own grandmother would feel very anxious if anything happened to her. She should do her best to save the girl!
Family loved their children unconditionally, which was worthy of admiration!
The old woman looked ashamed: “I know she’s done a lot of bad things and harmed others. However, this child was raised by us. As the saying goes, the parent is wrong to only raise without teaching. Her becoming this way is all our fault. Xiao Chun has always been competitive, wanting to be first in everything. She was indeed very accomplished. However, in university, no matter how good she was, she wouldn’t be the center of everyone’s attention and become some influential figure. Her competitive nature ended up occupying all her thoughts, which ended up provoking such a large disaster!”
Heavens! Ruan Zhan had been right. Such a major event happened due to such a simple reason.
As the old woman recounted her story, Xiao Xia learned everything about this matter. It turned out that Tao Xiao Chun regarded herself as intelligent and beautiful, but her grades was never as good as the third victim’s, her fame was far off compared to Zhang Xue and her crush Liu Tie who remained indifferent towards her, treating her as nothing more than a classmate, had some scandal with Qian Li, the girl from the countryside she looked down on. All this made her feel resentful and dissatisfied until she couldn’t endure it. Her heart became twisted enough to want these classmates dead to obtain what she wanted. However, she couldn’t think of any way to accomplish her goal without getting in trouble.
She inadvertently stumbled across Bloody Mary’s matter online. While the other students were still pondering whether or not they dared to play and whether they believed in it, she somehow confirmed its existence and believed it could help her. She put a lot of effort into investigating various records of Bloody Mary. With careful research, she secretly planned for several months before starting things a few days after the new semester.
Perhaps her resentment had been too deep, making her will more concentrated than those teenage girls who were just playing for the thrill. Therefore, she managed to summon Bloody Mary on the day of the basketball game. Her fierce obsession also managed to overcome her terror, preventing her from being scared to death by the summoned evil spirit. Instead, she managed to make a contract with it.
