“Does this world really have ghosts? If they exist, where are they? How can you see them, hear their Voices? Complete the game, and you will find the answer in your heart.”
“Warning: This quest is extremely dangerous. Choose carefully.”
Inside the apartment, the black phone’s screen glowed with a dim light, illuminating the girl’s delicate face in the darkness.
Zhao Mingyue held the black phone, reading every word on the screen without missing a single one. She took a deep breath, hesitating over the option: “Accept quest? If no choice is made within twenty-four hours, this quest will vanish permanently.”
Her older sister had been missing for two years. She had tried every method she could think of to find her, but nothing worked. This black phone, tinged with a hint of the supernatural, was her last hope.
After a moment of hesitation, her finger finally moved to the option on the screen: “Accept.”
“To see another world, you will need a small ritual and some help. The following game is called Hair Combing: At exactly 0:40 AM, enter the bathroom alone. Close the door tightly, extinguish all lights, and tie a red thread to your right wrist, leaving the other end outside the door. Then, face the mirror. Light a red candle in front of the mirror. Close your eyes, take a comb in your right hand, and comb your hair while silently repeating the name of the person you most wish to see.”
“An old saying goes, ‘A mirror is the world’s reflection; do not face a mirror to comb your hair at night, just as you do not face a mirror to describe a dream in the morning.’ The hour of Zi (midnight) is heaviest with yin energy. If you comb your hair before a mirror at midnight, you will glimpse another world. Perhaps you will see the face of the one you long for, or perhaps you will see a stranger staring at you coldly.”
“The quest succeeds in fifteen minutes. Note: No matter what happens during this time, you must observe the following: Do not make a sound. Do not make any extraneous movements. Do not open your eyes.”
After reading the quest details, Zhao Mingyue swallowed. She checked the time; it was already 0:20 AM, leaving only twenty minutes before the quest’s required time.
“Whatever, I’ll just try it first. Maybe it will really work.” She gave herself a mental pep talk. Truthfully, she was far from confident. She had found this black phone in a mysterious package at her door three days ago.
There was no sender, only her name as the recipient. It contained no clues save for a single sentence.
‘Do you want to find your family?’
When she first opened this phone, the first thing she saw on the home screen was a slightly yellowed photograph: In front of an old, worn-down children’s welfare home, a little girl in a white dress stood quietly before the gate. She was as perfect as a doll, yet as healing as an angel. A happy smile graced her cute face. In her arms, she clutched a rabbit doll with rough craftsmanship, even somewhat terrifying.
The doll was not pretty, yet the little girl held it tight as if it were her greatest treasure.
In the lower-left corner of the photo was a small line of text:
Bai Sisi and her Miss Rabbit.
Other than that, the phone had only two apps. One resembled a Ferris wheel, which couldn’t be opened for now. The other was a completely black icon—the app that gave her quests.
She still remembered, when she first got the phone, a few bullet comments from days prior floated across the screen.
[Run, you silly kid! You took something you shouldn’t have!]
[Wow wow wow, is this the female lead? So cute QAQ]
[Girl, congrats on getting an SSR reward in the starting zone, but take this old bro’s advice: throw the phone out the window.]
[A moment of silence for you (funny face)]
[Whatever you do, don’t say Bai Sisi’s name. Don’t be fooled by her cute looks; her bro is a tiiiny bit dangerous (serious face)]
[Shh, just a little secret: this phone’s previous owner was a cultured, refined, and easygoing person.]
Some clues could be gleaned from these bullet comments. For instance, the previous owner of this phone seemed to be the brother of the little girl in the wallpaper. This person was formidable, and taking the phone meant certain danger.
Of course, the bullet comments could just be someone’s elaborate prank.
But she had no time to ponder that now. She had to try this quest. Whether this phone was a trick, or truly held great secrets, all depended on this quest.
Twenty minutes was plenty of time. Zhao Mingyue pocketed the black phone, pulled out her own phone for light, and started rummaging through her apartment.
“Red candle, red string, and a comb.” She found the red candle in a drawer. She also had red string—leftovers from when her sister knitted a scarf. Grabbing her comb from the bedroom, she walked to the bathroom door.
She exhaled a long breath. The familiar bathroom seemed exceptionally terrifying at this moment. Due to a power outage, the house was pitch black. The bathroom door, blown by some unknown draft, creaked with a faint, grating sound.
The apartment building she rented was very old; the bathroom door was an aged, yellow wooden door.
Entering the bathroom, she closed and locked the door. She tied the red string to her wrist, tossing the other end outside the door. Then, she stood before the mirror, bending down to light the candle and fix it on the vanity, directly in front of the mirror.
Only five minutes remained until the quest began. The time on the phone showed 0:35 AM.
She switched off her phone’s light. By the candle’s weak flame, Zhao Mingyue stared at her reflection. Perhaps due to a draft, the candlelight was very dim. It should have been enough to light the small bathroom, but now it barely illuminated the area around the mirror.
The flame flickered, giving the sensation of being swallowed by darkness on all sides. She stared fixedly at herself in the mirror. She wasn’t sure if it was an illusion, but the reflection felt… strange. Like a stranger was standing there…
“Thirty-nine minutes. Just one more minute.”
She glanced at her phone again. As time ticked closer, her heart pounded fiercely, her palms slightly sweating. Timing it precisely, her right hand, bound with red string, grasped the comb on the counter. She shut her eyes tightly.
The comb glided smoothly through her short hair; there was no strange sensation. Silently, she repeated her sister’s name in her heart.
‘Zhao Yi, Zhao Yi…’
For Zhao Mingyue, time passed excruciatingly slowly at that moment, as if someone were gripping her throat.
She didn’t know what would happen next. Before this, she had been a staunch atheist. Now, she kept telling herself: the reason for her fear was merely psychological suggestion. The eerie game and its prompts all hinted at the existence of ghosts in the world, and now, here she was, alone in the bathroom—the place heaviest with yin energy. Panic was inevitable.
Surrounded by darkness, she repeated her sister’s name over and over, counting down in her mind.
It gave her the illusion of a death countdown.
Thus, any tiny movement in the room was infinitely magnified in her mind. She heard water droplets falling from the faucet, hitting the ceramic counter with a plink-plink sound. It sounded like someone was walking in the corridor outside, their steps extremely slow.
Worse, she clearly remembered the bathroom window was shut tight. So why did she feel an icy, bone-chilling wind on her body? Logically, such a small, enclosed space shouldn’t have such strong airflow. It felt like an invisible person was standing right behind her, breathing down her neck.
Her heart crawled with fear, an intense unease coiling around it.
‘Zhao Yi…’
She continued silently chanting her sister’s name. Ten minutes passed. Nothing had happened in those ten minutes. All the unease was just the fear in her own heart.
At this point, a sliver of disappointment even surfaced. She began to think the black phone really was just someone’s prank after all!
But just as the tenth minute passed, she suddenly heard a sound.
“Mingyue…”
“Zhao Mingyue!”
Zhao Mingyue’s body trembled, nearly causing her eyes to snap open. She was absolutely certain she hadn’t misheard. That Voice came from behind her! The voice was very familiar; she must have heard it somewhere, but she couldn’t quite place it.
The Voice drew closer, moving slowly from the living room towards the bathroom. With every step, it softly called out “Zhao Mingyue,” its frequency identical to her silent chanting of her sister’s name.
Who was calling her name from outside? No… was that thing calling her name even human?
The Voice was very soft, but it grew intensely sharp when it reached the bathroom door, almost distorting, as if in urgent haste. At that same instant, Zhao Mingyue felt the red string tied to her wrist yanked tight by some force.
It felt as though the other end of the string had been tied to the hand of another person behind the door.
Her combing motion involuntarily paused. A chill shot down her spine. Her heart crawled with fear. In all her years, this was the most world-shattering sensation she had ever felt.
“Bang bang bang!”
An urgent sound came from behind. That “person” was still shouting her name incessantly. Seeing no response from her, it began pounding on the door violently.
No, to be precise, it was closer to trying to smash the door down.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
The pounding grew faster and harder. The thing no longer called her name, replaced by a scratching sound, like fingernails scraping desperately against the door—rustle, rustle.
Zhao Mingyue’s fingernails nearly pierced the flesh of her palm. Her back was already drenched in cold sweat.
The red string dug painfully into her wrist. Her combing motion was stiff, her eyelids trembling, fighting the urge to look and see what exactly was outside the door.
Finally, the fifteen minutes were up. The moment her mental countdown hit the last number, the sounds in the bathroom vanished eerily. Even the red string on her wrist fell loose, as if nothing had ever happened. The silence in the room was terrifying.
To be safe, she counted an extra minute before opening her eyes.
The first thing she saw upon opening them was her reflection in the mirror.
Nothing seemed drastically different. However, the candle, which hadn’t been used much before, had burned down completely.
A candle burning out in fifteen minutes? Zhao Mingyue’s throat tightened. Quickly, she took the phone from her pocket, turned on its flashlight, and aimed it at the wooden door behind her.
The wooden door was intact. She couldn’t be sure if the thing that had been banging on it was still there, too afraid to go open it. But as her gaze traveled downwards, she discovered something.
“How is there a doll here?”
Inexplicably, a rabbit doll had appeared on the floor. The rabbit doll leaned against the wooden door, its head lowered, as if it had been blocking the door just moments ago, saving her life.
It took a long while for Zhao Mingyue to gather the courage to walk to the door and pick up the rabbit doll, stained with dried blood.
Holding it, a thought struck her.
“This doll… it’s the one from the photo, the one the little girl was holding.”
Before she could examine it closely, the black phone in her pocket vibrated. She pulled it out and saw several lines of blood-red text on the screen.
[Congratulations, you have obtained a Fierce Ghost Item]
[Bloodstained Plushie]
[Her sister told her not to be afraid when sleeping at night. Miss Rabbit is your good friend; she will protect you in the dark. So, on that rainy night, when the killer chopped off her head and dismembered her body, she still didn’t let go of her hand.]
[Holding this item, you can summon the Female Fierce Ghost: Bai Yu]
[Note: This Fierce Ghost is extremely dangerous. Be sure to exercise extreme caution when approaching.]
She had just finished reading the prompt when the red string on her wrist snapped taut again. The mirror behind her shattered with a crack. A shrill, reedy man’s voice echoed from within the mirror.
“Is anyone there…”
“Is anyone there!”
“Is anyone there!!”
“If no one’s there, I’m coming in…”
·
