Phantom Skeleton Painting

Chapter 42.1 Throwing the Handkerchief

Ai Xinsheng spent half an hour listening to Shen Qingyi’s story.

Shen Qingyi spoke intermittently, looking overly frightened. However, this story came to an abrupt end when Wang Ke died. She said that she and Xiao Weiqi accidentally separated, and she hid in the grass because of fear.

“Oh, so that’s it.” Ai Xinsheng sighed, “Fortunately, you are lucky and survived.” He analyzed, “Maybe there is something wrong with the handkerchief. Anyone caught with that handkerchief will have an accident. How old are you?”

Shen Qingyi timidly said: “I am eighteen this year.” She bit her lip, looking pitiful, “Brother, it turns out that half a month has passed outside.”

“Yes, it’s been half a month.” Ai Xinsheng said, “It’s okay, I will take you out.” Although he was also a newcomer and had no confidence in his heart, how could he bear to face such a lovely girl? When she said sad words, he naturally tried to comfort her. He recalled Shen Qingyi’s description just now. In Shen Qingyi’s description, Meng Meng suddenly disappeared, and Wang Ke died suddenly. Judging from the clues in the handkerchief, it seemed to be related to the song they heard. It’s just that Shen Qingyi was probably too scared and couldn’t explain many details clearly, such as whether Meng Meng was a human or a ghost, and what happened to her when she and Xiao Weiqi were separated. Ai Xinsheng wanted to continue asking, but Shen Qingyi said: “Brother, I want to go to the side to use the toilet. Can you help me keep my bag?”

Ai Xinsheng said: “Okay.”

Shen Qingyi handed over her backpack and whispered: “I’m in the grass behind you, you, you must not go too far.”

Ai Xinsheng smiled and said yes.

He turned his back and waited for Shen Qingyi to finish. Girls should go to the toilet more slowly, and Ai Xinsheng was not in a hurry. It was just that time passed minute by minute, and there was no movement behind him. Ai Xinsheng couldn’t help it anymore and called out: “Shen Qingyi, you… Are you okay?”

There was silence.

“Shen Qingyi?” Ai Xinsheng called twice more, but there was still no response. He felt that she was no longer there, so he immediately turned around and saw no one. Shen Qingyi, who was squatting on the ground just now, had disappeared. Ai Xinsheng remembered something with horror. He opened Shen Qingyi’s backpack with trembling hands. He saw a bunch of blood-red things in her backpack. He reached out and took it out and found that it was a soaked sheet. The blood-stained handkerchief was exactly the same as the one Shen Qingyi described as being placed in Wang Ke’s pocket.

Ai Xinsheng’s face paled, and he called Shen Qingyi’s name, but in the huge amusement park, only his hoarse voice echoed.

***

Xiao Weiqi opened his gift. Inside the perfumed box was a pink letter. He unfolded the letter and saw Shen Qingyi’s delicate notes. In the letter, Shen Qingyi confessed her love to him, and every word was full of the cuteness unique to girls. Xiao Weiqi felt uncomfortable as he looked at it. He turned the envelope over, only to find that there were several bright red fingerprints on the back of the envelope, as if someone had handled the envelope with bloody fingers.

Was Shen Qingyi injured? Xiao Weiqi was a little confused. He stood up and called Shen Qingyi’s name everywhere, but he could never find her. It wasn’t until he passed by a haunted house that he didn’t often go to that he heard the frightened screams of a girl coming from the haunted house.

“Shen Qingyi?? Shen Qingyi?? Is that you?” Hesitating, Xiao Weiqi walked towards the haunted house, but halfway there, he saw a tall woman in a red dress with her back to him, quietly standing at the door of the haunted house. It had to be said that Xiao Weiqi was also startled when he saw such a person at this time. He took two steps back and almost screamed. The woman turned her head and revealed an overly beautiful face. She saw Xiao Weiqi, her eyes lit up, and she said: “Hey, kid, why did you come here?”

“Who are you? Are you a human or a ghost?” Xiao Weiqi was startled.

“Are there any ghosts as good-looking as me?” The woman raised her eyebrows.

Xiao Weiqi said: “You…are you from here? Or did you enter here by mistake like us?”

“No.” The woman walked up to Xiao Weiqi and tapped his head with her long nails. “You young people… you have so much energy to vent, can’t you just have a few relationships? Instead, you are just looking for trouble? Xiao Weiqi, right? We are here specifically to find you. I know Wang Ke is gone, where are the remaining people? ”

“The rest of the people?” Xiao Weiqi said, “I, I don’t know… I’ve been separated from them. What’s your name?”

“Shen Junyan.” The woman said, “Just call me Sister Shen.”

While the two were talking, another scream came from the haunted house, which startled Xiao Weiqi. Shen Junyan seemed quite indifferent. She rubbed the tips of her fingernails with her thumb and said, “Do you want to wait here or follow me in?”

Xiao Weiqi licked his lips and said hoarsely: “Let’s go in together.”

“Okay.” Shen Junyan raised her finger, “But please don’t scream behind me. I hate people who are startled the most.” Those who were easily scared were more frightening than those monsters.

Xiao Weiqi: “…” He wanted to make a promise, but who could control such a thing as screaming, and under such circumstances.

Fortunately, Shen Junyan didn’t deliberately embarrass him. She just made a gesture of zipping up her mouth, turned around and left.

Xiao Weiqi showed a wry smile and followed Shen Junyan into the haunted house with extreme caution.

There was some moonlight outside, but inside the haunted house, it was completely dark. In this kind of atmosphere, he went to the haunted house. If Xiao Weiqi hadn’t been worried that the person screaming in the haunted house was Shen Qingyi, he would never have had such an idea. He and Shen Qingyi had been classmates for two years, and he knew that she was most afraid of these things. However, if Shen Junyan was not in front of him to lead the way, he was afraid that even if he gritted his teeth and came in, his legs would have been trembling. Xiao Weiqi glanced at Shen Junyan secretly and found that Shen Junyan had no expression on her face, as if the terrifying environment around them did not exist. She turned her eyes and looked around, and from time to time she reached out to take out a handful of decorations placed near the wall.

There are three haunted houses in Jiayue Paradise, and this was the largest one. Xiao Weiqi was a frequent visitor here. He knew very well that even if a person did not get lost, it would take about ten minutes to get from the starting point to the end. There are many side roads in the haunted house, and it was easy for people who entered it for the first time to get lost. Fortunately, Xiao Weiqi was very familiar with this place and had no worries about getting lost.

Shen Junyan suddenly said: “You live nearby, right?”

Xiao Weiqi said: “Yes, what’s wrong?”

Shen Junyan said: “Do you often come here to play?” She took out a flashlight from her backpack and held it in front of Xiao Weiqi. Xiao Weiqi took it and thanked her gratefully.

“Yes.” Xiao Weiqi said, “I am familiar with all of the attractions.”

“Then you lead the way.” Shen Junyan said, “I will follow you.”

Xiao Weiqi nodded and continued walking forward.

The paths in the haunted house were very narrow, and many traps were arranged to scare tourists. Xiao Weiqi knew this very well, so he walked smoothly. However, when he passed through a narrow passage, his ankle was caught by the trap under his feet. He was startled and told Shen Junyan: “Be careful, there are mechanisms here that will catch people’s feet.”

“Ah?” Shen Junyan said, “Mechanisms?”

Xiao Weiqi said: “Yes, the walls on both sides are hollow. When it is open, the staff will manipulate traps inside to catch tourists’ feet…” When he said this, he also realized that something was wrong. The entire amusement park was not open. Naturally, there couldn’t be any staff even if the electricity was on, so what was the thing that grabbed his foot just now…?

Xiao Weiqi suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. He glanced at Shen Junyan and found that Shen Junyan was leaning against the wall, seeming to be observing something. Before he could react, Shen Junyan raised her long legs and kicked hard towards the wooden wall. With one kick, the wall shattered and fell directly to the ground.

Xiao Weiqi stared, shocked, but what surprised him the most was what was behind the wall. Behind the wall, there were densely packed puppets. Xiao Weiqi knew these puppets. This puppet was the mascot of Jiayue Paradise. At first glance, it looked like a balloon with arms and legs, but he thought it was too ugly and rarely bought it.

Shen Junyan picked up the doll and observed it carefully. Xiao Weiqi followed her example and took one in his hand. As soon as he took it, he felt that the weight of the doll was a little wrong, and hesitantly said: “This doll is so heavy. ”

Hearing this, Shen Junyan stretched out her hand and tore open the doll, revealing the scarlet inner core. The originally white cotton was actually soaked with blood. Xiao Weiqi looked at the doll in his hand and felt a chill on his back. He was about to throw the puppet back to the ground, he felt something was wrong with the puppet in his hand. He looked carefully and suddenly found something strange. The puppet’s eyes… seemed different from usual.

With doubts, Xiao Weiqi stretched out his hand and poked its eyes gently, then threw the puppet to the ground, his face turned pale, and he said in a trembling voice: “Eyes…its eyes… It’s got human eyeball…”

“What?” Shen Junyan heard the words and took the puppet from Xiao Weiqi’s hand. She didn’t seem to feel much fear. She actually reached out and plucked the eyeballs out directly, held it in her hand and squeezed it, and said: ” It’s really human eyeballs.”

Xiao Weiqi stood there dumbfounded and said tremblingly: “Are you serious?”

Shen Junyan smiled: “Of course I am serious.” She was planning to continue to study the puppet in her hand carefully, when the scream that led them into the haunted house came from the depths of the darkness again. This time, the owner of the scream seemed to be closer. Xiao Weiqi heard the voice clearly and secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. He was finally sure that the voice was not Shen Qingyi’s…

“It seems to be over there.” Xiao Weiqi swallowed, “Want to go there?”

“You’ve already come in, and you still don’t plan to go over?” Shen Junyan smiled half-heartedly, “How dare you follow me here if you’re so scared?”

Xiao Weiqi had never seen a girl as brave as Shen Junyan. No, to be precise, he had never seen such a brave person. He thought that he was not timid, but compared with Shen Junyan, he was simply a chicken. His voice as quiet as a mouse, he said: “Then, let’s go and have a look.”

Shen Junyan turned around and left, still holding the terrifying doll in her hand. Xiao Weiqi felt increasingly uneasy. The direction from which the scream came was not the exit, but the fork next to it. Xiao Weiqi remembered this fork very clearly, because it was probably the scariest part of the entire haunted house. After turning the corner in front, they would enter a narrow passage. Only one person could walk through at a time, and even turning around was difficult. At the end of the passage was a closed room, with various dead objects made of plastic hanging densely on the ceiling. There were miserable humanoid corpses. Some corpses would even fall from the top and directly hit the tourists when they walked past them.

While Xiao Weiqi was reminiscing, Shen Junyan had already gotten into the passage without hesitation. Xiao Weiqi held up his flashlight and whispered to Shen Junyan what he knew about the situation, asking her to be careful.

“Yes, I know.” Shen Junyan said.

The narrow passage made walking a little uncomfortable, but fortunately, no accidents occurred until they passed. They entered the empty room filled with plastic corpses. Xiao Weiqi raised the light of the flashlight and saw that there were densely packed plastic corpses hanging from the ceiling. As a frequent visitor to the haunted house, Xiao Weiqi was already familiar with these corpses, but now he felt a chill down his back because he couldn’t help but wonder if there were real people hanging there too.

Shen Junyan was completely unaware of the terrifying atmosphere around her. She was silent in the room, trying to find the source of the screams. Xiao Weiqi was not as courageous as she was, so he wanted to take two steps back and stand against the wall to give himself more security. However, as soon as he stepped back, he felt something touch his foot. When he lowered his head, he saw someone squatting next to him.

“Fuck!!!” Xiao Weiqi almost screamed, cold sweat streaming down his back. He said, “Who are you? Why are you here?”

The person raised their head, and it turned out to be the girl from the couple who had insisted on separating from the group. Her face was full of tears, and she looked surprised when she saw Xiao Weiqi: “Xiao Weiqi? It turns out to be you. It scared me to death. It scared me!!!”

“Why did you come to the haunted house?” Xiao Weiqi said, “Jiang Rourou, where is your boyfriend? Isn’t he with you?”

“No, no, we got separated after we came in.” Jiang Rourou cried, “He left me and ran away. I’m so scared.”

Xiao Weiqi breathed a big sigh of relief when he saw the person. He said, “It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m here. Let’s get out of here.”

“But my foot is twisted. It’s pitch dark here and I don’t know where the exit is.” Jiang Rourou said sadly, “I can’t get out…”

Shen Junyan heard the conversation between the two and came over. She looked at Jiang Rourou and said, “Go out first, the air here is not good.”

“Okay.” Xiao Weiqi said, “But Rourou’s leg is injured. I’ll carry her out.”

“You?” Shen Junyan raised her slender eyebrows and made a strange expression. She said, “Your legs are trembling so badly that you can’t move. Let me do it. Don’t encounter anything later because you might just throw that little girl to the ground and run away.”

Xiao Weiqi smiled coquettishly and wanted to say something but saw that Shen Junyan had already bent down and carried Jiang Rourou on her back. The three of them turned and walked towards the passage, planning to leave here.

However, just when Shen Junyan led Jiang Rourou into the passage, Xiao Weiqi suddenly felt that something was wrong. He shined a flashlight on Jiang Rourou and saw that she was wearing a set of red clothes, but the style of the clothes looked weird. It was made of silk, with circular patterns printed on it. It didn’t look like Jiang Rourou’s normal style of clothing.

 

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