Chapter 6: A Ghost Story

Bai Sangzhu sat in silence in the back seat. A fine, drizzling rain fell outside the window. A moment later, she pressed the play button on her voice recorder again.

The recording was a question-and-answer session. The questioner was herself, and the one answering was that young high school girl.

The girl’s voice was very airy, very lost, like she was talking to herself, answering the questions subconsciously. The sound source was very close; you could even hear her faint breathing:

“……”

“Before the car accident, where were you, and what were you doing?”

“I was waiting at the crosswalk, waiting for the light… After it turned green, I walked to the middle of the crosswalk, and then the cars came…”

“What did you see? How many cars collided, and what kind were they?”

“I saw… three cars. The one in front was a dark black sedan, then a dark brown SUV, and last was a dark blue sports car. They were chasing each other. The dark black sedan slammed on its brakes, and then the three cars crashed together…”

“Was there anyone else on the street besides you?”

“I’m not sure… I was looking down at a text message on my phone and didn’t notice my surroundings…”

“Do you remember anything else? Did you smell anything unusual?”

“I smelled something burning, a bad smell, and choking smoke… also, the smell of blood.”

“Think more carefully. Did you smell any incense? Or see any white flowers?”

“No… only that sharp, irritating smell…”

“Did you have any strange dreams? Or any impressive illusions?”

“I can’t remember… no…”

“……”

The following part was just the same questions asked again in a different order. The girl’s answers were almost all identical. At the very end, the rhythmic sound of breathing stopped abruptly, and the dead silence returned to the car.

A long while later, Bai Sangzhu spoke in a low, heavy voice:

“Uncle Li… do you think there’s something wrong with her?”

“She held some things back, but there were no lies. The broken, hesitant speech is normal. If she had held nothing back and spilled everything completely clean, that’s when we’d need to worry, because that would usually mean she’d memorized a script beforehand,” the middle-aged driver said.

“What about her family background?”

“Not from Circle people. Biological father is Qi Jianguo, biological mother is Li Wanying. Both their family histories going back three generations are clean,” the middle-aged driver paused, then continued. “The woman who picked her up from the hospital does have the surname Tao, but it’s a common surname, not rare. I had someone ask the Tao Family; they have no record of the name Tao Xiao in their records.”

“Is there a possibility of a name change?” Bai Sangzhu lightly bit her lower lip, somewhat unwilling to give up, pursuing the question.

“Sangzhu, as you know, in our circle, changing names is impossible,” the middle-aged driver sighed, pulling the car over to the side of the road. He looked at the rear-view mirror and said, “I understand. With Sang You’s incident, you’re very anxious and uneasy right now, but what we’re doing has already clearly crossed the line… If we continue, cleaning up afterward will be very troublesome.”

Bai Sangzhu fell silent. After a moment, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled.

“Uncle Li, you’re right. I’m too impatient right now. —Is there any movement on Sang Nan’s side?”

“Your older brother?” The middle-aged driver said with some helplessness. “He’s not much better off than you. He’s had his men practically turn all of Pingjiang upside down. I imagine Sang You’s accident was beyond even his expectations, right?”

Bai Sangzhu slowly nodded.

“Head home now, or keep driving for a bit?”

Bai Sangzhu said in a low voice: “Drive a little longer. And please, drive faster, so the wind can blow through.”

“Understood.”

With the low hum of the electric motor, the dark black roof slowly slid back. Fine rain and the pale light of the streetlamps fell upon Bai Sangzhu. As if afraid of that all-pervasive light, she closed her eyes.

As the middle-aged driver expertly shifted gears and floored the accelerator, this obviously modified black sports car finally shed its low-key, unassuming exterior. Its launch speed could almost be described with the word “violent.” The deafening roar it let out in the quiet, empty night was like a sharp blade slicing into the dark curtain of rain.

“Let me summarize what you just said. You’re telling me that the Aston Martin we saw today had Bai Sangzhu, the second daughter of the Bai Family, sitting inside? She waited for you at the school gate all afternoon just to ask if you had any after-effects, and even transferred you a sum for mental distress compensation?” Liu Xu’s tone was rather strange over the voice call.

Qi Ran sighed: “I know it sounds ridiculous, but nothing that’s happened recently hasn’t been ridiculous… I don’t have a bank card, so I gave her Tao Xiao’s card number. The money’s been received.”

“How much?” Xu Yan asked curiously.

“Should be two hundred thousand,” Qi Ran said.

“From my understanding, mental distress compensation is generally around fifty thousand, with a maximum limit of one hundred thousand—Miss Bai gave twice the amount. She’s really generous. What does this mean, does it include hush money?” Liu Xu sighed.

“This matter, it’s probably over just like that. I guess it’s a blessing in disguise.”

After hanging up the voice call, Qi Ran changed clothes and walked into the somewhat cramped shower room.

Warm water flowed down her neck. She shook her head, trying to empty her mind, to stop worrying about all these strange, annoying things that had happened over the past few days.

After rinsing out the conditioner, she unintentionally glanced at the frosted glass door behind her. Her gaze suddenly froze.

Behind the frosted-textured glass, there seemed to be a blurry silhouette, looking like a person standing with their back turned.

Had she woken up Tao Xiao?

She blinked hard, wiping away the water that had run into her eyes, and looked at the bathroom door again. Tao Xiao had suddenly left without a sound.

“…What’s going on.”

Qi Ran was a bit bewildered.

After her shower, Qi Ran dried herself off, went to the mirror, and picked up the hairdryer. When she saw her reflection, she was momentarily stunned.

“Has my hair been growing a bit fast lately?”

She touched the strands of hair that now reached her shoulders, a little uncertain. In her memory, she had clearly just gone to the barbershop half a month ago to trim and dye her hair.

After thinking for a long time, Qi Ran decisively chose to give up worrying and started drying her hair. Once she finished with the hairdryer, she returned to her room. After turning off the lights and getting into bed, just as she was about to sleep, Qi Ran suddenly froze. Her drowsiness vanished in an instant, and cold sweat unconsciously broke out.

It suddenly hit her. After school, hadn’t Tao Xiao said in a text… that she was working overtime tonight?

Then, who was the person standing outside her door when she was showering?

The chill exploded, nearly sweeping through her entire body in an instant.

Knock, knock.

It was as if something was gently tapping on the door.

She stiffly sat up in bed and turned her head to look at the wooden door of her room. The lights in the living room outside, which she had just conveniently turned off, seemed to be on again. Through the gap underneath the door, she could faintly see a human silhouette standing right in front of her bedroom door.

“…Tao Xiao, are you back from work?” Her voice, which she tried to make sound calm, was much more trembling than she had imagined.

There was no response, only the sound of knock, knock again, with the exact same interval.

Qi Ran sat rigidly in bed, her hands and feet icy cold, her mind completely blank.

After repeating several times, the knocking seemed to stop.

Before Qi Ran could even sigh in relief, she suddenly heard a strange bumping sound.

Thump, thump!

Almost instantly, she realized what this sound meant… The one standing in front of her bedroom door seemed to have developed a curiosity for the door handle. It would be able to open the door by itself very soon.

As the creaking sound of the door lock being turned grew louder and louder, in her desperation with nowhere to run, she could only open the wardrobe beside the window and hide inside.

After closing the wardrobe, she held her breath in the pitch darkness, not moving a muscle.

Click.

This sound meant the bedroom door had been opened.

Perhaps because she didn’t need to use her sense of sight, she felt her hearing was incredibly sensitive right now. She could hear that the one tapping on her bedroom door—perhaps it shouldn’t be called a person—had walked into the bedroom. Its slow footsteps were incredibly strange. Qi Ran couldn’t imagine what kind of walking could produce such a sound.

The footsteps were intermittent. It seems to be looking for me, Qi Ran thought.

As the footsteps drew closer and closer to the wardrobe, her heartbeat similarly climbed higher and higher. When the footsteps stopped right in front of the wardrobe, she felt time itself had solidified. She didn’t even dare to continue breathing.

Click—clack.

A strange sound broke the dead silence. Qi Ran couldn’t tell what exactly this sound was, only that it sounded familiar, like metal scraping against metal—or like the sound of the wardrobe’s lock being latched from the outside.

The ghost had discovered she was hiding in the wardrobe, but instead of opening the door, it had locked it?

Qi Ran suddenly froze. She remembered seeing this kind of scenario before… According to the trope, there should be a second ghost here.

The second ghost’s position might be right behind her, inside this cramped, locked wardrobe.

For some reason, a lame joke suddenly popped into her head.

Speak of the devil… I’ve really run into one now.