Phantom Skeleton Painting

Chapter 18.2 Possession (End)

Time flew and soon it was three o’clock in the morning.

The hundreds of skewers called for were eaten cleanly, most of which were eaten by Li Ye. He didn’t say much, just ate and drank next to Li Su, and unknowingly, he destroyed most of the food. Ji Leshui collapsed drunk on the table early. He drank a lot of wine and didn’t say anything even when he was drunk. He lay motionless on the table, as if he was sleeping. Lin Banxia was in a daze after drinking. Although he was not drunk yet, he was already confused. However, Li Su did not drink alcohol due to health reasons, so both Song Qingluo and Li Su were quite sober.

In the end, Lin Banxia couldn’t remember how he got home at all. After regaining consciousness, he found himself lying on the bed and even changed into clean pajamas. After he woke up, he felt a little thirsty, so he covered his dizzy head and climbed out of bed. Before he could leave the bedroom door, he heard someone yelling from the TV in the living room.

Lin Banxia was stunned for a moment when he heard the voice. At first, he thought he had heard it wrong. However, after careful identification, he found that it was indeed Liu Xi’s voice.

How could Liu Xi’s voice come out from the TV? Lin Banxia was slightly startled and stopped moving forward. He carefully opened the bedroom door a crack and saw the scene in the living room through the crack.

Song Qingluo sat on the sofa in a relaxed manner, with no expression on his face, fiddling with the two dice that Lin Banxia had seen before.

The dice, one black and one white, rotated and slid in Song Qingluo’s hands, like a part of his body.

The cursing on the TV continued. Lin Banxia saw the TV, and it turned out…it was really Liu Xi.

Liu Xi was wearing strange white clothes and was locked in a spacious room. The room looked very strange, with mirrors on all sides and bright headlights installed in almost every corner of the room. It looked so bright that anyone looking at it couldn’t open their eyes.

Liu Xi was fixed on a transparent bed in the room, and his limbs were tightly bound. However, his mouth was not covered, so he could spit out angry curses without mercy.

“You are illegally detaining me. I’m going to call the police. I’m going to sue you! I’m going to sue you!!” He obviously didn’t go there voluntarily. He kept twisting his body and cursing.

However, no one paid attention to him. A man’s voice sounded, with a unique mechanical indifference: “Please cooperate with our work.”

Liu Xi: “Cooperate, why should I cooperate with your work? Who are you? Who are you??!”

There was no response. The voice only appeared once and then disappeared. Liu Xi was then allowed to continue screaming and making noise in the room.

The scene on the TV began to fast forward. About two hours later, Liu Xi lay weakly on the bed and gave up struggling.

“Please cooperate with our work.” The voice sounded again.

Liu Xi was blindfolded and could not feel the passage of time at all. At this time, just two hours seemed like a year to him. He said hoarsely: “What on earth do you want to do? Do you want money? I can give it to you. I have lots and lots of money.”

“Please make a wish,” the voice said.

“What?” Liu Xi was stunned.

“Please make a wish,” the voice said again.

Liu Xi lay on the bed blankly and screamed: “Do you know something? I…you…” He obviously felt that his secret had been discovered, and his next fate would be that of a poor white mouse. He desperately said, “How do you know…”

“Please make a wish.” The voice ignored all Liu Xi’s questions and repeated its request indifferently.

“I, I hope I can leave here.” Liu Xi said tremblingly.

There was no response, the room was quiet, and Liu Xi’s wish was not fulfilled.

“Turn off B32.” A cold voice ordered, and then several lights beside Liu Xi went out, and a medium-sized shadow was created in front of him.

“Please make a wish,” the voice continued.

Liu Xi didn’t know what happened, he said tremblingly: “I have already wished…”

“Please wish again.” The voice said coldly.

Liu Xi collapsed and cried. He didn’t know what this group of people were going to do, but he always felt as if he was being stared at by countless eyes. If he refused to obey, he would be killed like a guinea pig in an experiment. He was just an ordinary college student who had just graduated. He had never experienced these things. So, at the urging of the voice, he cried and repeated his wish again: “Let me out.”

When the wish came out, the created shadow belonging to Liu Xi changed. It began to gradually solidify and turned into a person exactly like Liu Xi.

“Record.” A cold voice sounded, “6.73 seconds, the restraint belt was damaged, 26.8 seconds, the door lock was opened.”

A series of data were being recorded continuously. Liu Xi felt the restraints on his body loosen. Before he could react, he felt a few more hands on his body. They pressed him down on the bed and tied him up again. The lights in the room that were turned off came on again, destroying the existence of the shadow.

“The wish failed; the wish priority is C.” The cold voice said, “Now conducting electronic equipment observation.”

Liu Xi screamed in horror. He thought something was going to happen to him, but nothing happened. Then a mechanical arm placed a mobile phone in his room.

“Is it transmitted through electronic equipment?” said the cold voice, “The observation time is tentatively set at 480 hours.”

Liu Xi said blankly: “What…are you doing…”

No one answered his question.

However, Lin Banxia already understood that these people were actually observing the existence of the shadow on Liu Xi and collecting accurate data. It seemed that this was the sealing that Song Qingluo once mentioned. It was just the process of sealing. Compared with Li Jeshui’s case, Banxia imagined it to be much more complicated.

As a normal human being, Liu Xi would obviously collapse if he was observed like this, but the clothes he was wearing seemed to have a special effect. In the fast-forward video, Lin Banxia noticed that he only woke up every day. For an hour, he spent the rest of the time sleeping, and he didn’t eat and didn’t seem to have any physiological needs.

The video continued to record, and Lin Banxia was fascinated by it, until a soft word suddenly appeared in his ear: “Go sit on the sofa and watch.”

Lin Banxia reflexively said politely: “No, no, I’m fine just like this.” After he said this, he realized something. He turned around and found Song Qingluo standing next to him, with his arms crossed. Looking at himself with interest.

“Ah…” Lin Banxia was instantly embarrassed. Wasn’t Song Qingluo still sitting on the sofa just now? Why did he suddenly appear in front of him now? He straightened up and said embarrassedly, “I… I woke up. I didn’t mean to…. spy.”

Song Qingluo said: “It’s okay. Since I dare to watch it in your living room, I don’t worry about you seeing it.” He thought for a moment, “But Liu Xi is your friend after all. You may feel a little uncomfortable after watching it.”

Lin Banxia whispered: “When was this video taken?”

Song Qingluo said: “More than ten days ago.”

Lin Banxia: “Then where is Liu Xi now?”

Song Qingluo: “He’s back. I thought he would contact you.”

Lin Banxia snorted and said, “Is he okay?”

Song Qingluo said: “He’s okay.”

“It’s okay. I’m still worried that he will become like Cheng Yuliu…” Lin Banxia sighed, “Hey, what are they doing?”

Just as he was talking to Song Qingluo, the situation on the video changed. After constantly asking Liu Xi to make a wish, Liu Xi’s shadow shape became more and more strange, and it got closer and closer to Liu Xi. However, when Liu Xi once again made his wish, the voice did not ask to turn on the headlights in the room as before, but quietly waited for the shadow to solidify.

The moment the shadow solidified, the mechanical arm grabbed a piece of skin-like thing and suddenly covered the shadow’s body.

The shadow gave a shrill scream. No, it was not so much a scream, but more like the sound of ice water being poured on a hot iron plate. It squeaked and emitted white smoke. Then a man in white protective clothing slowly walked into the room and carefully rolled up the piece of leather. From Lin Banxia’s angle, he could clearly see that there seemed to be a black thing inside the piece of leather. There was no entity, just a shadow. The man carefully rolled up the leather and put it into the box he brought in at the same time, and then hung a white lock on the box.

Liu Xi didn’t know what happened yet, and soon fell into a deep sleep, and the lights that had been shining in the room finally went out.

A cold voice sounded at the same time: “No. 37421, no stress relief is required, it has been sealed, and the relevant personnel involved in the case will be sent back soon.”

The video went black, and everything became silent.

Lin Banxia stared at the screen and was silent for a long time. Song Qingluo didn’t speak either and stood quietly beside him.

“Is this your job?” Lin Banxia asked.

Song Qingluo nodded.

“It feels so amazing.” Lin Banxia sighed.

Song Qingluo said: “Is there anything else you want to ask?”

Lin Banxia said cautiously: “Does your company insure you? Do you have five insurances and one housing fund? Is there any annual leave? What about the year-end bonus? Are there any academic requirements?”

Song Qingluo: “…Are you looking for a job?”

Lin Banxia was a little embarrassed and said: “Isn’t this… aren’t you asking me if there is anything I want to ask?”

Song Qingluo thought for a while and said: “If you take out insurance, you will get five insurances and one fund, annual leave, and year-end bonus. There are no academic requirements.”

Lin Banxia sighed: “That is great.”

Song Qingluo looked suspiciously, suspecting that Lin Banxia was speaking sarcastically. Lin Banxia said innocently: “I’m serious. It’s hard to find a good job now. If you don’t believe me, go and try.”

Song Qingluo: “Seriously?”

Lin Banxia: “Seriously.” He patted his chest, “If you find a decent job within three days, I will treat you to dinner.”

As a result, one day later, Li Su, who was having dinner with Song Qingluo, discovered that Song Qingluo actually started to submit his resume on his mobile phone. He was horrified and said: “Damn it, Song Qingluo, you can’t get the person you want to attract, so now you plan to job hop?”

Song Qingluo said calmly no.

“Then what are you doing?” Li Su was confused.

Song Qingluo said: “I want Lin Banxia to treat me to dinner.”

Li Su: “…” Song Qingluo, are you a beast? He even wanted to take advantage of that poor guy Lin Banxia.

The author has something to say:

Lin Banxia: I can’t die now. If I die, I will become the kind of ghost they despise the most.

Song Qingluo: What kind of ghost?

Lin Banxia:  A poor guy.

Song Qingluo fell into silence.

Li Su: But you are already poor now.

Lin Banxia & Song Qingluo: Please shut up.

 

Translator’s comments:

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