Chapter 17 Possession
As Lin Banxia’s classmate and best friend for several years, how could Ji Leshui not know what Lin Banxia’s expression meant? He helplessly clenched the rolling pin in his hand and said in a hoarse voice: “Ban Xia, you can’t let go at this time!!”
Lin Banxia glanced at Ji Leshui innocently: “I’ll try my best.”
Ji Leshui almost cried.
Just as the two were talking, the elevator door opened in front of them, and after a soft ding, a dark corridor was revealed. Ji Leshui didn’t expect that because no one lived here, there were no lights on the eighth floor. Fortunately, Lin Banxia, who was standing next to him, wisely took out his mobile phone and turned on the flashlight function. He whispered: “Let’s go.” Then he walked out of the elevator door first.
Ji Leshui was already regretting it now. It would have been better if he called the police directly. It was so dark that he couldn’t see anything. Who knew what would happen…
Lin Banxia didn’t think as much as Ji Leshui thought and had already begun to look for traces of Song Qingluo.
It was very dark in the corridor, and nothing could be seen except for the weak light source of the mobile phone. The footsteps of Lin Banxia and Ji Leshui echoed in the empty corridor. Ji Leshui felt a little panicked when he heard the sound. He said in a voice: “Banxia, let’s walk more softly so that no one can hear us.”
Lin Banxia hummed. Though he promised, he did not move lightly with his feet. They were still clicking. Ji Leshui felt a little uncomfortable, so he stretched out his hand to hold Lin Banxia and said: “Banxia!!!”
Lin Banxia turned around and said, “What?”
Ji Leshui’s expression completely froze. Neither he nor Lin Banxia moved around anymore, but the clattering footsteps were still ringing, and the source of the sound was at their feet. Ji Leshui slowly lowered his head, but the moment he lowered his head, the footsteps stopped.
Ji Leshui was covered in cold sweat. Under Lin Banxia’s puzzled gaze, he took out his mobile phone and turned on the flashlight. He took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, and then he took a photo behind him and looked at the long corridor.
Because no one had walked around for a long time, the walkways on this floor had been covered with a thick layer of dust, which was particularly eye-catching on the white ground. On top of the dust, there were countless footprints. These footprints were throughout the corridor, Ji Leshui looked at so many footprints and trembled all over. Then he slowly turned the light in front of him. When he saw the footsteps had not yet walked in front of him, he felt goosebumps all over… The dust in the corridor was still neatly spread on the ground, which meant that those things were following him and Lin Banxia forward!
Fear stuck in Ji Leshui’s throat. He whimpered a few times, then swallowed hard.
Before Lin Banxia, who was standing nearby, could figure out the situation, he saw Ji Leshui’s face turning green and purple, as if he had eaten something funny, and his body was shaking like chaff.
Lin Banxia asked strangely: “Are you okay?”
Ji Leshui trembled: “No, it’s nothing, leave me alone…first…find the boss first.”
Lin Banxia said yes.
With the dim light of his mobile phone, Lin Banxia walked forward cautiously, and soon he found a distinctive door at the end of the corridor. The lock on the door was broken open violently, and it was now ajar. There was no light inside, and the scene inside could only be seen through the not-so-bright moonlight.
Lin Banxia vaguely saw the scene inside the house through the crack in the door.
This was a simple house, somewhat similar to the one Song Qingluo lived in. There seemed to be some furniture placed against the wall in the living room, but Lin Banxia couldn’t see clearly.
“Go in and take a look?” Lin Banxia suggested.
Ji Leshui nodded like crazy. He was going crazy because of the strange footprints under his feet. He wanted to find a room to hide in right away.
The two of them entered the living room cautiously, deliberately walking lightly.
Ji Leshui followed Lin Banxia and noticed the things placed in the corner of the empty living room. He asked curiously: “Banxia, what is that?”
Before Lin Banxia had time to remind Ji Leshui, Ji Leshui shone the light of his mobile phone on it. It was better not to shine the light on it. When he did, Ji Leshui almost screamed when he saw a black cabinet there. In the cabinet there were two neat ceramic jars. In front of the ceramic jars was burnt incense candles, and above the ceramic jars, there were several neat photos of the deceased.
Ji Leshui saw the portrait on the photo. His eyes widened and he said in horror: “Isn’t this… this… the woman who jumped down from the building that night? How could she do that?”
Lin Banxia also saw the photo of the deceased, and in the photo, he also saw a face he had seen before.
“What’s going on?” Ji Leshui said in a trembling voice, “Where’s the boss? Where are the others?” A terrible thought came to his mind, “Banxia… tell me, what I’m looking at is… Yes, it’s not Song Qingluo.”
Lin Banxia was speechless.
Ji Leshui said, “Could it be that thing that tricked us here on purpose?”
Lin Banxia said: “Calm down, we have weapons!”
Ji Leshui looked at his rolling pin and the clothes drying rod in Lin Banxia’s hand, crying, and saying “What the f*ck is the use of it, they are magical creatures, we can only attack them physically.”
While the two were talking, a burst of Peking Opera singing came from the direction of the bedroom. The singer was an old woman, and she was singing: “My son is originally from the Yang world separated by mountains, but why do you come to this Fengdu city tower…”
Ji Leshui’s eyes widened, and he said, “Is there someone in the bedroom?”
Lin Banxia said: “I’ll go take a look.”
Both of them walked more cautiously. There was no door to the bedroom, but it was too dark inside to see clearly. Lin Banxia was mentally prepared and cast the light source in his hand into it. Through the light, Lin Banxia saw that there was actually someone in the bedroom. She was an elderly lady, sitting in a rocking chair, with a beautiful tabby cat sleeping on her chest. On the table next to her, there was an old tape recorder, which was playing unintelligible opera lyrics. The opera lyrics had a desolate melody, which sounded like sad music at first glance.
Ji Leshui called out tremblingly: “Old lady? Is this your home?”
The old lady didn’t respond.
Lin Banxia said: “Old lady?” He slowly walked into the house and went to the old lady.
Ji Leshui followed Lin Banxia cautiously. He could no longer walk at this time. His whole body was soft. Finally, he reached the old lady. He controlled his trembling throat and whispered: “Old lady, are you home alone?”
Lin Banxia, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped moving.
Before Ji Leshui could react, he heard Lin Banxia say: “Let’s go out.” He seemed to understand something suddenly, but he still couldn’t pull his eyes away. He looked up and saw the old woman. The cat on the lady’s chest was eating the old lady’s face with relish.
It was unknown how long the old lady had been dead. Most of her face had been chewed off, leaving only the exposed white bones. You could even see the hanging eyeballs.
Ji Leshui’s breath suddenly stuttered. He should have screamed, but the extreme fear defeated his reason. He couldn’t scream, so he could only retreat in embarrassment until he retreated to the living room and looked at it again. He arrived at the photo of the deceased on the cabinet.
It turned out that there were three photos in total, two of a young woman and an old lady. In the black and white photos, the three of them had stiff smiles on their faces and stared blankly at Ji Leshui.
“Ah!!!!!!” He let out a shrill cry, and Ji Leshui rushed out like a madman.
Before Lin Banxia could react, he saw Ji Leshui rushing out of the house. He hurriedly followed but found that Ji Leshui was so scared that he didn’t even take the elevator and went straight to the stairs.
The stairs were long and dark, but Ji Leshui couldn’t stop. He almost took three steps and then two steps at a time, running down like crazy.
The feeling of hypoxia caused by strenuous exercise even gave him a terrifying illusion. The old lady was following him, holding the fed civet cat in her arms.
Ji Leshui was out of breath. The dark corridor forced him to slow down. He didn’t know which floor he had reached. The distance that was not too far at first became forever in his eyes. An unreachable maze.
Hurry up, hurry up, there will be lights downstairs. Ji Leshui thought as he forced himself to stagger.
When the first light appeared in front of Ji Leshui’s eyes, he lost most of his energy, but the excited smile on his face disappeared before it lasted for three seconds. Between him and the light, appeared a hill. The hill blocked the light completely. Ji Leshui waited for a while before he realized that at some point, a tall man had stood in front of him.
He slowly raised his head and saw a strange face. The face was covered with hair and his facial features could not be seen clearly. A pair of green eyes stared at Ji Leshui sinisterly.
Ji Leshui: “Ahhhh!!!”
The person standing in front of Ji Leshui heard the cry, shouted something in a low voice, reached out and picked Ji Leshui up like a little chicken. Fortunately, Ji Leshui had not completely lost the ability to resist. He waved his rolling pin reflexively. Unexpectedly, the man’s other hand grasped Ji Leshui’s rolling pin without hesitation and pointed it towards him. He hit it against the wall next to him and there was a click, and the rolling pin broke into two pieces.
Ji Leshui collapsed again and cried: “Help Lin Banxia…” There are dead people upstairs and savages downstairs. How can a normal person like him be allowed to live this life.
The savage carried Ji Leshui and turned around and walked outside. The bright lights made Ji Leshui unable to open his eyes for a while. When his sight recovered, he actually saw Song Qingluo, who they were supposed to be saving. He frowned and looked at himself in confusion.
“Boss…” Ji Leshui saw Song Qingluo and struggled to reach out to him as if he had seen a life-saving straw.
The tall savage said: “Do you know him?”
“My neighbor.” Song Qingluo said, “Put him down.”
Ji Leshui’s feet fell to the ground. He hugged himself and cried: “Boss, why are you here? Lin Banxia and I thought you went to the eighth floor.”
“Lin Banxia is on the eighth floor?” Song Qingluo’s expression changed slightly, “You guys went up?”
“Yes.” Ji Leshui said, “I also saw a terrifying dead woman up there.”
Song Qingluo and the savage looked at each other, then pressed the elevator button.
“Are you going up there again? But someone is really dead up there?” Ji Leshui said in horror, “Shouldn’t we call the police first?”
“Don’t call the police yet. You wait down there. I’ll explain to you later.” The elevator door dinged open, and Song Qingluo and the savage were about to walk in. Ji Leshui said that he didn’t dare to be alone anymore. He would rather go back to the eighth floor than stay alone in the empty corridor on the first floor. Who knew if something strange would appear? His fragile nerves really could no longer withstand any torture.
So, Ji Leshui, who had just run away, returned to the eighth floor with the two people.
The author has something to say:
Lin Banxia: Eighty percent of the terrifying atmosphere is caused by you.
Ji Leshui screamed: But I’m afraid!
Lin Banxia: What are you afraid of? Watch me pick it up on the clothes drying pole!
Ji Leshui: Please!
Did you see anything wrong~
Translator’s comments:
Hey guys, I’m the translator for this novel. If you have any questions or thoughts feel free to comment and I’ll do my best to answer everything. If you notice any inconsistencies or errors, drop a comment and I will fix it. I am new to this, but I want to learn and give the best translation that I can to the readers. Thanks so much for reading Phantom Skeleton Painting, I hope that everyone enjoys the novel.
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