Ghost Says - Chapter 10.1

Lin Xian saw the note Qiao Gang had left, knowing that he had gone to the Song family’s place, and immediately drove here to chase after him.

He silently cursed Qiao Gang for being an idiot, going to the Song family to find Song Yuan – wasn’t that just walking into a trap! The previous Song Yuan hadn’t harmed him, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t do so in the future.

That person’s craziness was directly proportional to its obsession with Qiao Gang. If it had only wanted to be by Qiao Gang’s side before, after consecutively killing three people, it was hard to guarantee that its previous thoughts wouldn’t change.

In fact, he felt that Song Yuan was already impatient…

It must have lured Qiao Gang to the Song family for a purpose! What he needed to do now was to go and stop it!

Because he had the key to the Song family’s house, Lin Xian had no trouble getting in. He walked through the courtyard and into the living room.

The house was completely dark, with all the lights turned off, so Lin Xian could only rely on the light from his phone to dimly illuminate the way.

“Qiao Gang! Are you here?”

He shouted loudly in the house, hoping to get a response, but he was disappointed.

He decided to go upstairs. The jade pendant he had worn previously had already been broken, and although the high monk had given him another jade Buddha, he didn’t know if it would still be effective against Song Yuan.

The light from the phone was very weak, barely illuminating a distance of two or three steps in front of him.

Halfway up the stairs, Lin Xian found that his feet couldn’t move.

A pale, bluish-white hand was firmly gripping his ankle.

Lin Xian was startled, and before he could react, he was forcefully pulled down the stairs.

When he fell, already injured on the forehead, Lin Xian had no strength to resist, and when he was dragged onto the floor, he even started to lose consciousness.

He struggled to keep himself alert, and after a while, he got up from the floor. The phone had been lost during the dragging, and his eyes could now see some things in the darkness. There was nothing unusual around him, and the hand from before seemed to have been his imagination, if not for the blood still flowing from his forehead.

Was this a warning not to go upstairs?

Lin Xian scoffed contemptuously and climbed the stairs again.

When the hand appeared again, Lin Xian quickly evaded it the moment he detected it, his movements agile. After repeating this a few times, the hand that appeared in the darkness seemed to get annoyed and revealed more of its body.

When its face was fully exposed, Lin Xian recognized who it was.

It was not Song Yuan, as he had initially thought, but the deceased Jian Xia.

“Why are you the one?”

Lin Xian was able to maintain his composure, cautiously watching it.

Jian Xia did not answer his question. Its delicate face was not the rosy hue of the living, but the ashen gray of a corpse, staring blankly at Lin Xian without any reaction to his question.

Lin Xian found this rather strange, and then remembered that Jian Xia had been Qiao Gang’s good friend in life. No matter what, it shouldn’t want to see its friend get into trouble, so perhaps he could persuade it to go rescue Qiao Gang.

“Jian Xia, Qiao Gang is now with Song Yuan, and he’s in danger!”

Jian Xia twitched slightly at the mention of “Qiao Gang”, and Lin Xian’s heart raced, about to persuade it to go save the person, but unexpectedly, Jian Xia took two steps forward and reached out to try to strangle Lin Xian’s neck.

Seeing the situation turn bad, Lin Xian immediately counterattacked. During his time at the police academy, he had been the champion in hand-to-hand combat, and although Jian Xia’s strength was shockingly great, it ultimately lacked any real technique, and was kicked in the abdomen by Lin Xian, falling to the ground.

Lin Xian seized the opportunity to run upstairs, and Jian Xia, after getting up, also staggered up the stairs, but at a slower pace.

After crossing the last step of the stairs, Jian Xia had not caught up yet, and Lin Xian felt a little relieved.

Jian Xia’s behavior just now seemed to have no self-awareness at all, only intent on attacking him. It had become this way, and Song Yuan was definitely involved. Could it be that the people killed by Song Yuan would be controlled by it?

Then the previous attack by Wen Dayong was indeed orchestrated by it.

Lin Xian gave a bitter smile, this was not good news at all.

Song Yuan had killed three people – did this mean he still had two “people” to deal with?

There’s an old saying that the good spirits don’t work while the bad spirits do. After hearing a faint yet unusually clear sound of a woman’s crying, Lin Xian had a pretty good idea of who he was encountering.

In the hallway of the room, a girl wearing a red dress was crouched on the floor, her long hair hanging down to the ground as she wept softly.

She was standing in the path Lin Xian needed to take, and there was no way for him to avoid her. And if he didn’t go forward, Jian Xia behind him would soon catch up.

Lin Xian steeled himself and tried to bypass her, but as he walked past Xiaoyu, she was still crying without any intention of looking up.

Lin Xian didn’t dare let his guard down, constantly watching her movements. Just as he was passing by her, her long hair that touched the ground suddenly stirred, wrapping around his legs and extending upwards.

He was tripped and fell to the ground, and Xiaoyu’s cold body crawled up, bringing her face close to his. The whites of her eyes were filled with broken capillaries, making them a terrifying red. The most horrifying part was that her face had no skin, only exposed muscles and fat.

The overly stimulating visual effect made Lin Xian close his eyes, trying to ignore the bloody breath that hit his face.

He felt something cold touch his face – Xiaoyu’s fingers. Those fingers had long, sharp nails, and he had no doubt they could tear his skin open in the next moment.

The fingers kept caressing his face.

“What’s on your face? Why does it feel so smooth?” Xiaoyu touched her own face, puzzled, “Why doesn’t Xiaoyu’s face have it?”

Lin Xian didn’t know what to say. Xiaoyu’s childish tone made him believe that she too had been manipulated by Song Yuan, and her consciousness was utterly confused right now.

“I want to be like you. Can you give me this?”

Lin Xian felt the icy fingertips reach towards his jaw, and then sharp pain radiated from there.

She was cutting his skin!

She wanted to peel off his skin!

Lin Xian struggled violently, making Xiaoyu’s work very difficult.

She paused, tilting her head, and in this posture, if it had been her in life, it would have been cute and coquettish, but now it only evoked a sense of terror.

Then, she came up with an idea.

“I’ve got it! If you die, you won’t move anymore, and this thing will be Xiaoyu’s!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands.

Lin Xian was now tightly bound by the hair, like a cocoon encasing a silkworm pupa. A strand of hair had wrapped around his neck, slowly tightening. Lin Xian suddenly felt short of breath, his face turning bright red as he frantically scratched at his neck.

Xiaoyu, with her blood-red eyes, watched his reaction curiously from the side.

During the struggle, the jade Buddha around Lin Xian’s neck peeked out, and when Xiaoyu saw it, she let out a cry, and the hair quickly retracted from the touch of the jade.

Released, Lin Xian gasped for air, coughing repeatedly.

Xiaoyu had retreated to the side, and though she seemed unusually angry from the fright, she feared the jade Buddha and dared not come near.

Lin Xian knew it was the power of the jade Buddha, so he pulled it out from his collar and hung it outside.

Jian Xia was now almost at the top of the stairs, and Lin Xian, standing up from the ground, quickly opened the door to Song Yuan’s room and unhesitatingly stepped inside.

To his surprise, the room was not as dark as he had imagined. Moonlight streamed in through the open window, casting a silver veil over the room.

A person was sitting in the chair in front of the desk, but with their back turned, their face was not visible.

Lin Xian remained alert and tentatively asked, “Qiao Gang?”

“…I didn’t expect those two to be so useless, letting you in so quickly.”

The person’s voice was low and melodious, like gently flowing spring water at night.

“…Qiao Gang?” Lin Xian immediately recognized the voice, though the other had never spoken in such a tone before.

“Is it you?” Lin Xian asked uncertainly again.

The other let out a light chuckle and turned the chair to face him, and the moonlight fell upon his youthful face – it was Qiao Gang’s face.

“Were you asking about Gang? He’s doing very well now.”

“…Who are you?”

“Weren’t you always wanting to see me?”

“Are you… Song Yuan? What have you done to Qiao Gang?”

Lin Xian’s expression darkened as he struggled to suppress his anger and the growing anxious concern that had begun since that afternoon.

“Didn’t I just say? He’s doing very well, and in a bit, he can be with me forever.”

“What have you done to him? Have you ever considered that maybe he doesn’t want to be with you.”

“Don’t try to provoke me, Mr. Lin. No matter whether he wants to or not, he is my person, and very soon, he will stay by my side forever.”

“Oh? What method? The same as those two ‘people’ outside?”

Lin Xian’s mouth curved into a mocking smile. During his previous conversation with Song Yuan, he had noticed the abnormality on Qiao Gang’s wrist.

In the darkness, something was dripping drop by drop from Qiao Gang’s wrist onto the floor, being absorbed by the soft carpet. The air had the pungent smell of blood.

Lin Xian knew that what he needed most now was to stay calm. Only by remaining calm could he have a chance of saving Qiao Gang. And he had already become quite accustomed to this kind of calmness, it had almost become a habit.

“Why not? At least that way, he will forever accompany me, and won’t want to leave.”

Song Yuan’s voice was gentle, with a faint touch of sweetness.

“You have no idea how long I’ve waited for him, waiting for him to look at me again, to call my name.” He then sighed, “Actually, I feel that the afterlife is better than when he was alive. This way, I can stay by his side every day, watch him smile, watch him speak, and shamelessly admire the most intimate parts of him that others can’t see.”

“It feels truly wonderful. If it weren’t for you people, I would be very satisfied with this kind of life. But why do you annoying people have to exist?”

Song Yuan’s voice carried a chill, like the sound of ice crystal striking.

“Why is it that some people can’t keep their hands to themselves? Touching other people’s things is very impolite behavior.”

Lin Xian thought of Jian Xia’s crushed bones and Wen Dayong’s death.

“If his actions still wouldn’t make me too angry, that young lady really disappointed me. What she did has exceeded the limits of my tolerance.”

“All she did was make Qiao Gang fall in love with her.”

Song Yuan fell silent for a while, then said, “The things you said just now, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear them. Of course, you won’t have the chance to say such things again.”

Although his tone was gentle, Lin Xian knew he was already angry.

“The first two times I didn’t manage to kill you were indeed your luck. But luck won’t last forever, will it?” As he spoke, he slowly stood up.

“Luck doesn’t come for no reason, does it?” Lin Xian calmly met his gaze.

“I don’t believe in luck, I only believe in myself.”

Standing in front of him, Song Yuan’s blood-stained hand naturally fell, the blood dripping from his fingertips, and then that bleeding hand rested on Lin Xian’s neck.

“To die by his hand, you should feel blessed.”

Lin Xian’s lips moved slightly, “Is that so? Unfortunately, I don’t feel that way.” As he spoke, he extended his right foot to trip him, and at the same time, he struck a punch to Song Yuan’s abdomen. In the moment he bent over, Lin Xian delivered a chopping blow to the back of his neck.

Song Yuan collapsed to the floor.

Lin Xian was panting heavily, his heart pounding like a drum. In order to wait for the best moment to act, he had restrained himself until now, and the excessive tension had made his palms damp with sweat.

He then took out the handkerchief he was carrying, tore it into equal-width strips, and took out a pen, tying a knot in the upper third of Qiao Gang’s injured arm, then inserting the pen into that loop and twisting it tight. Seeing the bleeding stop, he used the cloth to secure the pen in place.

Lin Xian’s previous training had included emergency treatment for wrist cutting, and fortunately he hadn’t forgotten it all. Qiao Gang was no longer in immediate danger, and Lin Xian felt relieved.

“The first aid is not bad.”

The sudden voice from beside him startled Lin Xian. Qiao Gang, or rather Song Yuan, had opened his eyes and was now looking at the bandage on his wrist.

“Why are you so surprised to see me? Did you really think that little stunt would be enough to deal with me?”

Qiao Gang’s – no, Song Yuan’s – face was filled with a condescending pity, like a cat toying with a mouse.

Lin Xian gritted his teeth, ripping the jade Buddha from his chest and pressing it directly onto Song Yuan.