After catching the boss’ weak spot, the shop owner bought the wedding dress back to the store at a very small price. That night, he couldn’t wait to put the wedding clothes on the plastic model. The result did not disappoint him. Just when he was about to close the store and get off work, a young girl came to the store.
As usual, as soon as the little girl entered the store, she was attracted by the wedding dress worn on the model. She immediately asked to buy the wedding dress without even asking the price.
The shop owner was secretly delighted and quoted an absurdly high price without hesitation. In his opinion, the workmanship of the clothes was worthy of the price, so a higher price wouldn’t be too much.
After hearing the shopkeeper’s quotation, the little girl immediately called a few friends and collected all the money for the shopkeeper. Then she paid the bill and left, taking away the dress with a very happy expression.
After the sale was recorded, the shop owner hummed happily, turned off the lights in the shop happily, and went to get off work.
The next day, the shop owner opened the shop as usual, but when he entered the shop and cleaned it as usual, he suddenly discovered something was wrong – the female model seemed to have moved. When the store owner saw this, he immediately became anxious, thinking that a thief had entered the store. He rushed forward to check on the female model. After all, this item was the treasure of his store.
However, when the boss came up to the model and looked at the wedding dress on the female model, he suddenly remembered a terrible thing. Wasn’t this wedding dress sold yesterday? Why was it back today?
The shop owner remembered what the owner of the wedding dress had said before, and a layer of cold sweat appeared on his forehead. He tremblingly wanted to take off the wedding clothes from the model and take a closer look, but as soon as his hand touched the model’s hand, his body instantly stiffened. .
The model’s hands were actually warm, and the touch was no longer plastic, but human skin…
The shop owner suppressed his fear and slowly turned the model facing the window. The moment he saw the model’s face, he screamed in horror: “How could that happen!!!”
The plastic mannequin in their store disappeared, replaced by the little girl who bought the wedding dress. She was wearing the wedding dress, with the same stiff smile as the plastic model on her face, her eyes open lifelessly, like a statue.
It is said that that day, many people saw the shop owner rushing out of the shop while crawling.
After that, the shop owner closed his shop and the plastic mannequin disappeared. This story became an urban legend.
After Song Qingluo finished speaking, he stopped talking. Lin Banxia and Ji Leshui listened with great interest, both showing that they still had unfinished thoughts.
“That’s wrong. Since everyone who sees this model will want to wear her clothes, then why doesn’t Lin Banxia want to wear it? You don’t wear it, and neither did the shop owner?” Ji Leshui felt that he had discovered a loophole.
“This is related to the strength of each person’s inspiration[1.].” Song Qingluo said, “Some people have strong inspiration and can feel subtle abnormalities. Such people are easily affected. Some people have weak inspiration, and the influence is not that strong.”
“Oh.” Ji Leshui scratched his head, but then remembered that he still had a phoenix crown on his head, and looked a little embarrassed, so he said, “I’ll go change my clothes first.”
After Ji Leshui entered the bedroom, Lin Banxia looked at Song Qingluo and asked, “Are there many such things in the world?”
Song Qingluo said: “Not too many, but not few either.”
Lin Banxia said: “Then the house we live in is one of them?”
Song Qingluo said: “Yeah.”
Lin Banxia said: “Is the box in your living room also…”
Song Qingluo raised his finger and made a silence gesture, and Lin Banxia pursed his lips and swallowed the questions in his heart.
Ji Leshui changed his clothes and did not dare to look at the female model when he came out. Fortunately, Song Qingluo explained that the female model could only confuse people for three days. Other than the wedding dress she was wearing, the other clothes were only effective for three days. Oh my god, the effect will expire after three days, so it’s not dangerous, at most it’s a bit scary.
Lin Banxia said: “How long will this wedding dress last?”
Song Qingluo said calmly: “If no one interrupts, it won’t end until death.”
Lin Banxia: “…”
When Ji Leshui heard this, he thought of the shop and the girl in Song Qingluo’s story, and suddenly had a terrifying feeling. How did Song Qingluo know that this wedding dress could last until death…
After struggling for a while, the sky had completely darkened, and Song Qingluo placed the plastic female model in his bedroom.
Although Ji Leshui was still a little frightened to stay there alone, he did not see any more terrifying visions that afternoon, so with Lin Banxia’s comfort, he reluctantly agreed to live alone in Song Qingluo’s house.
Song Qingluo didn’t care. If Ji Leshui insisted on disagreeing, he could only say that his fate should be like this. He would never force people who couldn’t be saved.
Song Qingluo and Lin Banxia comforted Ji Leshui and went to rest nearby.
Today was still a moonless night, the clouds were thick and dark, and the sky seemed to be covered with a thick curtain. The wind was blowing outside the window. Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo were sitting in front of the TV. There was no dialogue, and they were silent in tacit understanding.
On the TV program, a variety show was playing. It wasn’t boring, but it wasn’t interesting either. Lin Banxia suddenly felt a little cold, reached for the cushions on the sofa, and held them in his arms.
It was unknown if it was because of the strong wind, but the window that had been closed suddenly made a rattling sound. Lin Banxia originally wanted to get up and close the window, but when he stood up, he suddenly remembered that this window was the one that scared Ji Leshui a few days ago. First Leshui thought it was a painting, he then used a rag to wipe away the bloody fingerprints on the inside of the glass… Wait, the inside of the glass?
Lin Banxia suddenly had an epiphany. The bloody handprint appeared on the inside. Didn’t that mean that the mark was printed from inside the house? Now Ji Leshui is gone, but he was still sitting in the room… Goosebumps suddenly appeared on his back, and his Adam’s apple moved uncomfortably.
Song Qingluo saw him standing still and said softly: “What?”
Lin Banxia whispered what he had encountered a few days ago.
Song Qingluo said: “So?”
Lin Banxia said: “So I’m a little scared, could you please help me close the window?”
Song Qingluo: “…”
Lin Banxia: “0.0”
Song Qingluo looked at Lin Banxia’s round eyes and said helplessly: “Why weren’t you afraid at that time?”
Lin Banxia: “0.0… I didn’t react.”
Song Qingluo: “…”
Lin Banxia: “0.0 Thinking about it now, it’s so fucking scary.”
Song Qingluo: “…” In the end, he gave up discussing this issue with Lin Banxia, walked to the window silently, and closed the window tightly.
Lin Banxia thanked Song Qingluo gratefully and said that he wanted to take a bath because he was so scared that he broke into a cold sweat just now.
Song Qingluo couldn’t hold it back anymore and said, “It’s been two or three days, and you didn’t react until now?”
Lin Banxia lowered his head and held a change of clothes, and said: “It’s fast, it’s fast, under normal circumstances it would take a month.”
Song Qingluo: “…”
Lin Banxia went to take a shower, finally washing away the fear caused by the epiphany, and happily ate a plate of high-calorie nuts before going to bed. Of course, he was still very conscientious and did not forget to call Ji Leshui before going to bed to ask him how he was doing.
Ji Leshui answered the phone normally and said it was nothing serious, but he kept hearing someone snoring next door and asking if it was Song Qingluo.
Lin Banxia raised his head and glanced at Song Qingluo, who was still watching TV in the living room, and said yes without conscience.
“Hey, it’s really him. I’m shocked.” Ji Leshui said, “Look at how talented he is. He is so thin, and yet he snores so loudly. You can’t tell a person by his appearance.”
Lin Banxia fooled Ji Leshui and asked him if he felt uncomfortable. Ji Leshui yawned and said that he didn’t. He had always felt cold before, but when he arrived at Song Qingluo’s house it got much better after that. Although the snoring was a bit loud, it didn’t have any impact. Instead, it had a sense of life.
Lin Banxia thought that the breath of life was not bad.
“Then I’m going to bed.” Ji Leshui, “You should go to bed early too.”
“Good night.” Lin Banxia said.
After hanging up the phone, Lin Banxia turned off the lights in the bedroom. He was sleeping in Ji Leshui’s room. Because Song Qingluo disliked Ji Leshui’s room which had no windows when he came over, Lin Banxia temporarily changed rooms with him. It was just a room. At that moment, the light in the bedroom went out, and only a faint light came from the living room. Lin Banxia stared at the ceiling, brewing sleepiness.
However, just when he was about to fall asleep, he seemed to hear a strange chewing sound, sticky and slow, as if something was chewing meat that was not easy to tear into pieces. The sound came from the closet beside him, ringing in Lin Banxia’s ears.
Lin Banxia lay motionless on the bed.
The sound became louder and louder, and the closet door slowly revealed a dark gap. Inside the gap, a bloody eye appeared, spying on the person on the bed with malice.
Lin Banxia still didn’t move.
The eyes in the wardrobe went from one, to a pair, to three, and finally densely filled every gap in the wardrobe. Each of them was bright blood red, with pupils only as big as the tip of a needle.
“Huuu…huuuu…” A slight snore came from the mouth of the man lying on the bed.
The gap in the closet that was still expanding suddenly stopped, as if it was shocked by the slight snoring. If they could talk, they would definitely scold him viciously: How can you even sleep?
On the other hand, the man sitting in the living room, still watching TV out of boredom, had a rich smile in his eyes.
The author has something to say:
Lin Banxia, the IE browser of the human world.
Let me explain, a 10-sided die is 0-9, one represents the tens, one represents the ones, 00 is 100
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.
If anyone is interested or able, please consider supporting me on Patreon or donating on Ko-fi. There you will have access to advanced chapters as well as polls to choose new novels to translate. I will also do 6 extra chapters for that week every time I accumulate $30 in donations on Ko-fi.
Anyway…if anyone is interested, I would love to have you onboard.
Hi Guys, This is the translator for this novel. I just realized that I made an error and the chapter’s didn’t unlock when they were supposed to. My apologies, the cost was only supposed to be for advanced chapters. The matter has been fixed nd I will do my best to not let it happen again.