Volume 14
Chapter 19: The Fierce Battle (Part 2)
About half an hour after Zou Yameng had left, Zhu Xi felt a little bored and put down the cards in her hand. “I’m not playing anymore. You all are too bad. You don’t even remember the cards. It’s no fun to play. By the way, where’s Lu Li’s sister?”
Wen Hupo reminded her, “Her name is Zou Yameng. She went to the bathroom.”
“She’s been gone for half an hour.” Zhu Xi frowned. She had always lived in a rather sensitive environment and naturally had pessimistic thoughts about such a sudden disappearance. “Did she faint in the bathroom?”
An Baili pouted and said, “How is that possible? She’s in great health. The bathroom isn’t some spider’s web that sucks out a person’s essence.”
The Silly Goose’s delicate eyebrows lifted slightly. At this time, there were many people, all girls. The horror stories she had seen in the past all rushed out of her mind. “That’s not necessarily true. Have you guys heard the legend of the toilet spirit?”
“In Mulan, there was a young migrant worker who rented a room in the old city. The room was very small, with no living room, only a bedroom and a toilet. After a busy day, when he came home from work, this young man would sit on the toilet and unknowingly fall asleep on it.”
This wasn’t the first time the Silly Goose had told a ghost story in front of the other girls. She was experienced and vivid, and in a little while, she had attracted the attention of all the girls. For a time, they stopped playing cards and huddled together to listen to the ghost story.
Zhu Qiao looked left and right and finally chose to hug Sister Xi’s arm.
“One day, he was looking at his phone on the toilet and unknowingly fell asleep again. In a daze, he heard someone knocking on the bathroom door, as if saying, ‘Is anyone in there? I’m in a hurry, please come out quickly!’ He was groggy and wanted to answer, but he suddenly remembered that he lived alone. Why would someone be knocking on his bathroom door?”
An Baili let out a whimper and went to grab Wen Hupo’s arm. Besides Lu Li, only Hupo could bring her a sense of security.
“The young man broke out in a cold sweat. He didn’t dare to answer. But the knocking on the door outside became more and more urgent. That person kept repeating the same sentence, ‘I’m in a hurry, please come out quickly! I’m in a hurry, please come out quickly! I’m in a hurry, please come out quickly!’”
Click. Suddenly, the lights in the villa dimmed, and the TV screen went black. The girls subconsciously let out a cry of surprise.
At the same time, the phone by the front door rang. Zhu Xi went to answer it nonchalantly. Zhu Qiao was trembling. “Sister Xi, don’t go. There’s a ghost!”
Zhu Xi couldn’t help but laugh. If there really were ghosts in this world, the one who should be least afraid is you, this former little Miko. And, Little Qiao, don’t you know if there are ghosts in the world or not? She picked up the phone by the front door. It turned out to be the internal line from the property management. The staff member was apologizing profusely, saying that there had been an error during maintenance, which had caused a power line to break. They were now rushing to repair it and estimated that the power would be restored within half an hour. She turned around to tell the girls this news, but she heard the Silly Goose still continuing her story.
“The young man was terrified. He could only dial the police’s number and tell the police that his house was haunted. The police very calmly asked him where he lived. The young man told the truth, but to his surprise, after he had said his address, the police said, ‘Then you open the door. I’m at the door too. I’m in a hurry. Please come out quickly!’ He was so scared he dropped his phone.”
Zhu Qiao and An Baili clung tightly to Wen Hupo. The two girls were so scared they didn’t dare to move. Zhu Xi thought, how can there be ghosts and spirits in this world? These ghost stories are just people scaring people. But then she thought again, the things she and Lu Li had encountered were also quite fantastical. Perhaps there really were some phenomena that science couldn’t yet explain…
Could there really be a ghost?
This thought floated through Zhu Xi’s mind. She suddenly felt as if there were a few more pairs of eyes in the darkness, that a little ghost was following her step by step.
She quickened her pace and sat down next to Zhu Qiao, not saying a word.
“The young man could only squat in the corner of the toilet, trembling all over. The knocking on the door outside became louder and more frequent, as if more than one person were knocking, more than one person wanting him to open the door. He endured every minute and every second in torment. Finally, he heard the rooster crow downstairs, and the night sky in the distance also gradually faded. The knocking and shouting outside the door stopped at the same time. He was glad he had saved his little life and decided he must move out today.”
Zhu Qiao’s delicate body quietly relaxed. She patted her full chest. “Good, good. When it’s light, the ghosts won’t come out.”
The Silly Goose smiled slyly. “Yes. The young man also thought so. So he waited for a while, and after making sure there was no sound outside, he pushed the door open. Then he only heard several voices say, ‘You finally opened the door!’… The story ends.”
An Baili asked nervously, “What did he see in the end? What happened to him? Why did the story just end like that, with no head or tail?”
The Silly Goose was a little aggrieved. “The story ends here. I only thought of this story of the toilet spirit because Sister Yameng was taking so long to come back.”
Zhu Qiao stammered, “Ah! Then will Sister Yameng encounter the toilet spirit?!”
Zhu Xi knocked her little head. “Little Qiao, there’s no toilet spirit! It’s all just ghost stories, not real!”
“But, but she really hasn’t come back for a long time! The bathroom on the first floor isn’t far. She didn’t even shout when the power went out…”
With Little Qiao’s reminder, Zhu Xi also felt it was strange. If Zou Yameng had been in the bathroom all this time, why hadn’t she shouted when the power went out? She subconsciously tensed her body and thought of many possibilities, such as a robber having broken into the villa, or… was there really a ghost? She shook her head violently, throwing the supernatural idea out of her mind. “I’ll go find her.”
“Huh?”
“Sister Xi, don’t go!”
Zhu Xi snorted with disdain. “Little Qiao, I’m doing this to tell you that there are no ghosts or monsters in this world. Not only am I going, but I’m also going to bring Zou Yameng back!” After speaking, she took out her phone, turned on the flashlight, and, with the help of the piercing white light, walked toward the corridor on the first floor.
She walked slowly in the darkness. She, who was usually audacious, was perhaps influenced by the Silly Goose’s ghost story. Sweat was also beading on her palms. She walked to the end of the corridor and saw that the frosted glass of the bathroom was a stretch of gray.
“Zou Yameng, are you in there?”
She asked in a small voice and knocked on the bathroom door. There was no response. She thought for a moment, then abruptly pushed open the bathroom door, shone the flashlight around, and didn’t see any corpse or a scene of blood flowing all over the ground. She quietly breathed a sigh of relief in her heart. So it wasn’t a robber… I was too sensitive. This villa is in a rich area, and the security is very good. It’s impossible for an outsider to break in… then it must be… haunted? Zhu Xi had really been drawn in by the Silly Goose’s ghost story. The first thing she thought of was that it was haunted.
She suddenly heard a faint whisper from somewhere, as if a ghost were murmuring. A chill ran down her spine, and her whole body tensed up. Is there really a ghost?
…Impossible! She affirmed this thought to herself, mustered her courage, and followed the whisper toward the second floor…
…
After a long while, the four girls on the first floor stared at each other. Zhu Qiao asked pitifully, “Why hasn’t Sister Xi come back either?”
