Phantom Skeleton Painting

An awkward silence spread between the two.

Just when Lin Banxia was thinking about whether he should say goodbye, the man finally spoke. He said, “This reason is sad enough.”

Lin Banxia’s eyes were slightly moist, thinking to himself, is there anything more terrifying than poverty in the world? At present, it seems that there is none.

Probably not wanting the sadness to continue to spread, the man changed the subject: “You came to see me for something?”

Lin Banxia said: “Oh, there seems to be something wrong in my house. Is it the same in yours?”

The man said, “What’s wrong?”

Lin Banxia said: “My roommate said it is haunted.”

The man said: “I don’t believe in ghosts and gods.”

Lin Banxia smiled bitterly: “Yes.”

“But.” The man said, “You are very interesting. Maybe I can treat you to a meal and listen carefully to what you have to say about what’s going on.” He said and stretched out his hand to Lin Banxia, ​​”Song Qingluo.”

This was the man’s name, Song Qingluo. It seemed that he was quite fated with Banxia. Lin Banxia laughed and held his outstretched hand: “Lin Banxia.”

Song Qingluo is a strange person. You could feel it from the house he lives in and the way he talks. He said he wanted to treat Lin Banxia to dinner, and the next moment he went into the kitchen and asked Lin Banxia to sit in the living room and relax.

It was the first time that Lin Banxia came to someone’s house. He didn’t want to appear too casual, so he sat on the sofa cautiously and looked around again. The plastic female model whose head suddenly fallen off just now was still lying quietly on the ground, staring at Lin Banxia with big eyes. It was unknown if Lin Banxia saw it wrong… The female model’s expression earlier was still smiling, but now the corners of its mouth dropped, turning into a deadly gloom.

Lin Banxia looked at her for a while, then bent down to pick up the model’s head and carefully placed it in the corner of the sofa, while he sat on the other side of the sofa. He sat on the sofa with nothing to do, so he began to look at the living room seriously.

The large and small boxes placed in the living room almost took up the entire living room. There was a box very close to Lin Banxia, ​​so he tentatively stretched out his hand, lightly touched the outer layer of the box, and then frowned, showing doubt. The outer layer of this box looked like wood at first glance, but it felt very soft, somewhat like… human skin.

What is in such a box? Lin Banxia was thinking when he suddenly heard a slight noise. He raised his head and found that the sound came from a cabinet at the connection between the living room and the balcony. Although the sound was slight, it was a bit harsh. If he had to describe it, it was like someone was in the closet, scratching at the door with sharp nails.

The sound was so continuous that Lin Banxia couldn’t ignore it. He sat on the sofa and listened for a few minutes. Finally, he couldn’t sit still anymore and got up and went to the kitchen.

The kitchen door was made of frosted glass and was locked from the inside. Lin Banxia only heard the sound of cooking from inside. He raised his hand and knocked on the glass door. No one answered. Lin Banxia called out again: ” Mr. Song?”

“What?” Song Qingluo’s voice was very low.

“There seems to be something in your closet.” Lin Banxia said loudly, “Do you want to come out and take a look?”

Song Qingluo said something, but it was too vague, and Lin Banxia couldn’t hear it clearly. When he asked again, there was no response.

However, at this time, the wardrobe in the living room became more and more exaggerated and creaked, as if the wardrobe door was about to be broken.

Lin Banxia had no choice but to turn around and walk to the closet. However, before he could respond, the closet door in front of him opened with a creak.

As soon as the closet door opened, the thing inside came into Lin Banxia’s field of vision. It was an altar.

There were several red incense candles lit on the altar. Behind the incense candles, there were two ceramic jars. Lin Banxia often saw these jars, which are the most common jars in funeral parlors – urns. Except for the altar, Lin Banxia did not find anything inside that could make a sound. His eyes wandered, and soon he found a mess of blood stains on the closet door where it had been scratched. The blood stains were so long and thick that it made one’s scalp tingle.

Lin Banxia stared at the altar for half a minute. Finally, he silently raised his hand and closed the closet door. Then he returned to the sofa as if nothing had happened and continued to sit in a daze.

Song Qingluo finally came out of the kitchen, holding several plates of hot dishes. He put the dishes on the table, looked up at Lin Banxia, ​​and motioned for him to come over for dinner.

Lin Banxia walked to the table and said, “I heard something in your closet…”

Song Qingluo placed the bowls and chopsticks without raising his head: “Oh.”

Lin Banxia said cautiously: “Could it be a mouse or something?”

Song Qingluo said: “There are no mice in my house.”

Lin Banxia said: “Then…”

Song Qingluo said: “There is only an urn.”

Lin Banxia: “…”

Song Qingluo said: “It stands to reason that the urn won’t make noise, right?”

Lin Banxia had nothing to say.

It was probably Lin Banxia’s expression of shock that made Song Qingluo realize that something was wrong with his words. He mused: “But I can’t say for sure. This urn was left by the landlord. I didn’t touch it.  I can’t be sure that it won’t make noise. What happened?”

Lin Banxia felt a little dizzy: “The landlord left it?”

Song Qingluo said: “Yes, upstairs and downstairs, the neighboring houses all contain urns. I liked the urns in this house, so I rented this one.”

Lin Banxia thought that the word “likeability” was used so wonderfully that he was speechless.

While the two were talking, Song Qingluo handed the chopsticks to Lin Banxia. Lin Banxia held the chopsticks and started eating silently with a bowl in hand.

Song Qingluo’s cooking skills were good, and the fried dishes were all delicious. Lin Banxia enjoyed the meal very happily. While enjoying the meal, he chatted about the reason for his visit and said that there seemed to be something wrong with his house, and that his roommate was planning to move out.

Lin Banxia spoke and Song Qingluo just listened, but his attention was not on Lin Banxia. Instead, he was thinking seriously about something.

Seeing that he had no intention of chatting, Lin Banxia had no choice but to shut up. The two of them finished their meal in this silent atmosphere. Fortunately, the food tasted good, so it was not too painful.

After finishing the meal, Lin Banxia was too embarrassed to continue disturbing her, so he stood up and left.

When he walked to the door, he heard Song Qingluo behind him say softly: “Don’t move.”

Lin Banxia said in surprise: “Ah?”

“Moving won’t help.” This sentence was too strange. Lin Banxia wanted to ask again, but the door behind him closed with a bang.

Lin Banxia stood there stunned for a while, then turned around and went home.

Lin Banxia was inquiring at home, while Ji Leshui had rented a suitable house over there. He couldn’t wait to move out and had almost no requirements for the house, so he quickly found a place to live. He called Lin Banxia and told him that he would not come back today and would live in the new house.

Lin Banxia knew that he was in poor condition, so he didn’t say anything. Instead, he helped him pack a change of clothes and sent them to his new house.

“Banxia, you can stay here at night.” Ji Leshui said, “I’m worried about you living there alone.”

“It’s okay.” Lin Banxia said, “Don’t worry about me, I haven’t seen anything strange yet.”

Ji Leshui wanted to persuade him again, but seeing Lin Banxia’s firm attitude, he had to give up.

When it was getting dark, Lin Banxia went home alone. The house was still the same as yesterday. After a simple wash, he fell into a deep sleep.

***

Ji Leshui was lying on the sofa in his new house. Although he was a little embarrassed, his heart calmed down. After a hard night last night and no rest during the day, Ji Leshui was already very sleepy, but he was still a little scared and didn’t dare to turn off the lights in the living room.

Lying on the sofa, Ji Leshui closed his eyes in confusion. His consciousness quickly fell into a deep sleep, and everything around him became silent.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, the soft sound of the clock woke Ji Leshui from his dream. He opened his eyes drowsily and saw a black window, in front of which stood a woman in a red dress.

His whole body trembled, and Ji Leshui woke up instantly. He thought he was dreaming at first, but when he rubbed his eyes hard and lost the last trace of sleep, he realized that he was not dreaming.

The same living room, the same TV program, he actually returned to the home he had escaped from before, was lying on the same sofa where he lay last night. Repeated programs were still playing on the TV, and the screen began to flicker, and sharp noises like howls came from the TV one after another.

Ji Leshui was shaking violently. He stiffened his neck and looked at what should have been a window with his peripheral vision, but he saw it as a painting.

The woman who was standing in front of the window just now had opened the window and sat on the window edge with her back to him. Her hair was extremely long and scattered on the ground, like a dense spider web.

Ji Leshui felt extremely cold all over. He seemed frozen and couldn’t even move a finger, let alone stand up and escape.

“You…who are you?” He exhausted all his strength and finally squeezed out a few words from his mouth. Ji Leshui’s voice shook like chaff, and he asked desperately, “Who are you?”

The woman laughed, the laughter was sharp and shrill, like a ghost wailing, and she said, “I am you.” After saying that, she jumped out of the window.

However, the next moment, her body hit the floor in front of Ji Leshui, like a broken watermelon, completely torn apart. Her head was also shattered into pieces, with only her eyes still intact. She stared at Ji Leshui, who was sitting on the sofa, with resentment, her red lips slightly parted: “You can’t run away.”

Ji Leshui let out a desperate cry. He wanted to stand up and leave, but his body couldn’t move. The TV screen turned into white snowflakes. The broken woman in front of him began to twist her limbs, trying to stand up from the ground. However, all the bones in her body were broken, and she could only drag herself slowly on the ground in a twisted posture, and just like that, step by step, she arrived in front of Ji Leshui.

Ji Leshui could even smell the disgusting stench. He could no longer scream. Fear was like a stone, stuck heavily in his throat. His pupils gradually dilated, and he could not even breathe.

The woman grinned. She leaned over, placed a bright red kiss on Ji Leshui’s cheek, and repeated the words: “Go back.”

With this murmur that was almost a curse, Ji Leshui’s mental defense was completely defeated. His throat throbbed, his eyes rolled, and he fainted.

When he woke up again, it was already bright and bright the next day.

When Ji Leshui woke up at first, he didn’t even dare to open his eyes. He looked through the gaps in his eyelids for a while to make sure that he had not returned to the original room, and then left the sofa trembling.

There was no woman, no window, and no previous room. It was as if everything last night was just a dream.

Ji Leshui entered the toilet and turned on the water in embarrassment to wash his face. However, when he looked up in the mirror, he found a blood-red lip mark on his right cheek.

It’s like a curse mark that couldn’t be erased.

The author has something to say:

Song Qingluo: Why don’t you escape?

Lin Banxia: If I escape, the devil won’t let me go, and the bank won’t let me go either. Even if I don’t have a mortgage, I still have thirty years left.

Song Qingluo:…………Same.

Translator’s Notes:

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.