At midnight, as I slept soundly, I was awakened by a wet chewing sound. It was slow and deliberate, as if someone were eating something one small bite at a time.
I opened my eyes and saw a dark figure crawling on top of Lý Diễm.
“It hurts… It hurts…”
In her dream, Lý Diễm grimaced, sweat streaming down her forehead. She looked to be in terrible pain.
I leaned out to get a better look, and when I saw what was happening, I couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath.
A ghost was sitting at Lý Diễm's feet, gnawing on her left leg. It had been chewed to a bloody mess.
But there was no way she could wake up. Another male ghost was sitting by her head, holding her eyes shut.
The two ghosts seemed to realize I was watching. They slowly turned their heads toward me, their mouths grinning from ear to ear.
I quickly pulled my head back in.
Honestly, the sight sent a shiver down my spine.
But I'd warned Hoàng Kiều Kiều and Lý Diễm not to touch my things. This was the consequence they'd brought on themselves.
7
The next morning, Hoàng Kiều Kiều and Lý Diễm looked so awful that Lý Khả nearly fainted.
Lý Khả's eyes widened. “Oh my God! What happened to your faces?”
I saw a layer of black qi shrouding Hoàng Kiều Kiều and Lý Diễm. It was clear they wouldn't live much longer.
Lý Diễm clutched her left leg and said weakly, “I don't know what's going on, but my left leg hurts so much now.”
Lý Khả covered her mouth in horror. “Why is your left leg so much thinner than your right?”
Lý Diễm's left leg was so emaciated it looked like nothing but bone.
Lý Diễm let out a shriek. “My leg! How did this happen…”
I looked at her calmly and said, “A ghost ate the flesh off your leg last night. You took something that belonged to it, so you had to pay with something else.”
Lý Diễm trembled, her lips moving soundlessly as she stared at me in disbelief, her face deathly pale.
Hoàng Kiều Kiều screamed too. She rushed to the mirror and burst into tears. “My hair! All the hair on the top of my head is gone!”
All the hair on top of Hoàng Kiều Kiều's head had disappeared, leaving her looking ridiculous and funny.
Hoàng Kiều Kiều cared about her hair more than anything.
Every day, she spent a whole hour taking care of it.
Only then did they begin to believe what I'd told them.
After all, no one could change so drastically overnight.
Hoàng Kiều Kiều shakily stepped in front of me and asked, “Tô Nhân, is what you said true? The things on your stall last night—were they really for ghosts?”
When I nodded, she glared at me furiously. “Fine! You deliberately wanted to hurt us, didn't you? If you knew those things were for ghosts, why didn't you stop us…”
Lý Diễm was even more furious. She charged at me, meaning to hit me, but before she could reach me, her left leg suddenly buckled and she dropped to her knees.
Keeping my expression calm, I said, “First, I deliberately set up my stall somewhere deserted last night. Second, I warned you not to touch anything, much less eat it.”
“It's only the first day. The flames on you haven't been completely extinguished yet. If you sincerely beg me, I might save your lives.”
Hoàng Kiều Kiều pressed her lips together and glared at me. “You want me to beg you? Dream on! It's just a ghost haunting us. My father is a businessman and knows plenty of experts!”
“Lý Diễm, we don't need to beg her. My father will take care of this,” Hoàng Kiều Kiều declared arrogantly.
Then, without even sparing me a glance, they left the dorm.
Only Lý Khả and I remained in the room. Lý Khả asked cautiously, “Nhân Nhân, do you think they'll really be able to deal with those ghosts?”
I shrugged and replied indifferently, “Who knows?”
Unexpectedly, when Lý Khả and I reached the classroom, a crowd had already gathered outside.
Everyone looked horrified.
In the crowd, I saw Hoàng Kiều Kiều sitting on the ground, retching again and again. Even from a distance, I could smell the strong stench of blood in the classroom.
I saw Hoàng Lôi sitting in his chair. But… his head was gone. Blood covered the area around his seat.
“How awful! How could the ceiling fan have fallen?”
“Exactly. The school just replaced this ceiling fan this year. Nothing like this has ever happened before…”
“Maybe it was karma. I heard he raped a girl from outside the school and drove her to jump to her death. His father paid to cover it up.”
The crowd buzzed with discussion.
Lý Khả nervously tugged at my sleeve. “The video has already been posted in the school's group chat.”
I opened the group chat and, sure enough, found a video recording what had happened to Hoàng Lôi.
No one else could see anything, but I saw it clearly. A ghost was perched on the ceiling fan, glaring at Hoàng Lôi with a malicious look. It tugged at the fan little by little, then finally yanked it down.
At that very moment, blood sprayed everywhere. Hoàng Lôi's head rolled to the floor, his eyes still wide open.
8
I frowned.
In theory, the ghosts shouldn't be able to kill them until the third day. But this was only the second day.
Looking closely at the ghost in the video, I realized it wasn't one of the ghosts I'd seen last night. It was a completely unfamiliar female ghost.
I suddenly remembered that Hoàng Lôi had indirectly caused a girl's death. It was very possible this female ghost had been by his side all along, but Hoàng Lôi's yang energy had been too strong for her to approach.
The ghosts that had haunted him last night had greatly weakened his yang energy, giving the female ghost a chance to take her revenge.
I sighed and was about to lead Lý Khả away when Hoàng Kiều Kiều in the crowd suddenly spotted me. She charged over angrily and raised her hand to slap me, but the people around us quickly held her back.
“She's the one who got my husband killed! She's the one who brought the ghosts here!” Hoàng Kiều Kiều glared at me with hatred.
The people around us looked at her strangely, as if she were crazy.
“I heard Hoàng Kiều Kiều used to bully Tô Nhân…”
“She even poured acid into Tô Nhân's drink before. Luckily, Tô Nhân noticed in time.”
“Oh my God, isn't that attempted murder?”
“What can you expect? Her family has money…”
Hoàng Kiều Kiều glared at the crowd, and they fell silent at once.
“Tô Nhân, don't think this will scare me into begging you!”
But just then, another commotion broke out below.
I poked my head out to take a look.
Lý Diễm and her boyfriend, Từ Cương, seemed to have seen something. They were running frantically through the crowd.
“Ghosts! There are ghosts on me! Can’t you see them?” His face was wild with terror.
The people around them looked at her as if she were insane.
Only Hoàng Kiều Kiều and Lý Diễm were deathly pale.
I leaned close to their ears and whispered, “Guess what he saw?”
Hoàng Kiều Kiều began to tremble violently. A male ghost was dangling from Từ Cương’s legs.
The ghost muttered, “Give me back my legs…”
A moment later, the chilling sound of bones breaking rang out.
Từ Cương let out a heart-wrenching scream. His legs suddenly snapped off in a grotesque fashion, the bones jutting out.
The bloody scene before them left everyone horrified.
Though he was in so much pain he was about to pass out, Từ Cương still tried to reach down and pull the bones in his legs out of his body…
Lý Diễm screamed like a madwoman, “Tô Nhân, wasn’t killing Hoàng Lôi enough for you? Now you want to kill Từ Cương too! I’ll fight you to the death!”
She charged at me like a lunatic, but others quickly held her back.
I looked at them coldly.
The deathly pallor on both Lý Diễm and Hoàng Kiều Kiều’s faces had grown even more pronounced.