Chapter 68: Approaching Science
The person in front of her had a pale, bluish face, with red veins covering the eye sockets and slowly seeping blood.
Wei Cainin looked at the blood streaming from her seven orifices and thought to herself that she must be dreaming, or it must be some prank by others.
Otherwise, how could she be seeing a face that looked nothing like that of a living person?
Wei Cainin pinched herself.
It hurt, so it wasn’t a dream. She thought in despair.
The woman in red seemed to enjoy the fear in Wei Cainin’s eyes, raising the corners of her mouth. As she moved, blood continuously dripped from her mouth.
When she grinned, maggots started falling out of her mouth.
Wei Cainin could see that her mouth was almost filled with wriggling maggots, making her legs weak. She thought to herself, if this was a prank, these people were going all out.
Just as the woman was about to pass through the wall, Wei Cainin couldn’t hold it in anymore and shouted, “The socialist core values—what was it again? I forgot the last part!”
Wei Cainin grimaced in agony.
As a successor to socialism, she couldn’t even finish reciting the core socialist values.
Beside her, He Siqi was startled awake by the noise, struggling to open her eyes, still groggy. “Cainin, what’s wrong?”
She cleared her mind and turned her head, only to see Wei Cainin’s legs trembling and her face full of despair.
He Siqi was stunned for a moment, following Wei Cainin’s gaze. When she saw the red figure in the bamboo forest, all her sleepiness instantly vanished.
She pulled out a talisman from her chest and threw it outside with all her strength, shouting, “What the hell, this is too terrifying!”
He Siqi threw the talisman with force, and it hit the ghost woman in the chest.
The ghost screamed as the yellow talisman struck her, and thick smoke started emanating from her chest.
Wei Cainin felt like her worldview had been completely shattered. She turned around in a daze, muttering, “Is this some kind of circus performance?”
She was a materialist, but how could everything before her seem so idealistic?
He Siqi’s hand was still trembling from throwing the talisman. Once she regained her senses, she quickly looked outside again.
The terrifying figure had disappeared.
Still shaken, He Siqi took the talisman that Ye Xue had given her and affixed it to the window. She took another and placed it behind the door to prevent the ghost from returning.
These talismans were meant to ward off evil spirits, and if placed on the door or window, they could keep ghosts out.
But He Siqi didn’t know how long these talismans would last.
While attaching the talismans, she told her roommate, “Call Ye Xue!”
Wei Cainin looked confused. “Why call Ye Xue? Shouldn’t we be calling the teacher?”
He Siqi didn’t have time to explain. She pulled out her phone, trying to dial Ye Xue’s number, but no matter what, it wouldn’t go through.
He Siqi pressed the buttons multiple times, but nothing happened. She glanced at her phone and muttered, “No signal!” Then she turned to Wei Cainin, “Cainin, can you make a call?”
Wei Cainin quickly reached under her pillow and grabbed her phone. When she saw the signal on the screen, she was shocked too. “I have no signal either.”
He Siqi mumbled, “What do we do now?”
At that moment, the familiar sound of crying echoed again.
Wei Cainin, upon hearing it, turned pale and said, her voice trembling, “Siqi, I heard this sound just now, and then… then…”
She couldn’t even bring herself to say the word “ghost.”
How could there be ghosts in the world? It was unscientific!
The mournful cries spread all around them as if they were coming from every direction.
He Siqi only heard the crying but couldn’t see the ghost reappear. Gradually, she gained some reassurance, knowing that the talisman Ye Xue gave her was working.
He Siqi forced herself to calm down, saying, “Cainin, let’s wait until morning and then go find Ye Xue.”
She just hoped these talismans would last until morning.
Wei Cainin nodded, her face pale.
Suddenly, the haunting cries stopped, as if they had vanished in an instant.
Both He Siqi and Wei Cainin froze for a moment.
Then, a familiar, reassuring voice came from outside, “Siqi, Cainin, what’s going on? I heard a lot of noise just now. Is everything okay?”
He Siqi’s face lit up with relief. “It’s Ye Xue!”
From outside, Ye Xue’s voice called out, “Can you open the door?”
The two quickly rushed to the door.
He Siqi grasped the doorknob, ready to open the door when Wei Cainin suddenly realized something was wrong. “Ye Xue is on the fifth floor, and we’re on the fourth—how could she hear the noise?”
He Siqi released the doorknob, slowly lowering her hand.
Outside, perhaps due to the long silence, Ye Xue’s voice called out in confusion, “What’s going on? Why aren’t you opening the door? Open the door!”
Wei Cainin swallowed nervously and asked He Siqi, “Should I, uh, take a look through the peephole?”
He Siqi hesitated but nodded.
Wei Cainin pressed her eye against the peephole, but all she saw outside was nothing but a vivid, striking red.
She turned back to He Siqi and said, “There’s no one there, but everything outside is so red.”
Hearing this, He Siqi’s face went pale, and her lips lost all color. With a tremor in her voice, she asked, “Cainin, do you remember… that person had red eyes?”
Wei Cainin suddenly realized something and a chill ran down her spine.
Had she just locked eyes with that thing?!
The thought made her skin crawl. In a panicked scream, she shouted, “Damn it, I should’ve brought a Mao Zedong portrait with me!”
Outside, the voice of “Ye Xue” kept urging them, “Siqi, Cainin, open the door!”
“Open the door, quickly!”
“Let me in!”
The tone grew more urgent with each repetition.
That familiar voice, which had once reassured them, now sounded like a death sentence in the dead of night, making the two girls in the room hold onto each other, screaming.
—“Open the door!”
The voice continued to call.
Through her sobs, He Siqi cursed, “Open the door, my foot! I’m not opening it!”
With the talisman Ye Xue gave them in the room, she would rather die than step outside.
…
Ye Xue, disturbed by the strange sounds, had a headache. She had just fallen asleep but now opened her eyes again.
She groaned in exasperation, “What is this, disturbing people in the middle of the night!”
She suddenly sat up, looking over at Gao Lan, who was sleeping soundly beside her.
Gao Lan was known for her deep sleep; sometimes even alarm clocks couldn’t wake her, and they had to call her to get her up.
Ye Xue got out of bed, sneezing, and casually threw on a coat, glancing outside.
A thick, oppressive aura of yin energy was slowly spreading.
Ye Xue frowned. “It stinks.”
Who would’ve thought she’d run into ghosts while traveling? She grabbed her exorcism sword and headed for the door.
Just then, the elevator doors opened.
Ye Xue looked at the empty elevator and smirked, “Do you think I’m an idiot? Taking the elevator during a haunting—this is like the fatal mistake in every horror movie.”
She activated her spiritual vision, tracking the source of the yin energy, which seemed to be spreading downward.
Ignoring the open elevator, she proceeded down the stairs, her sword in hand.
As she walked, she realized something was off—the area with the strongest yin energy was precisely the room where He Siqi and Wei Cainin were staying.
Ye Xue quickened her pace and ran to their room.
Outside Room 508, a ghost in red stood pressed against the door, peering into the peephole, calling out in a voice Ye Xue recognized well, “Siqi, Cainin, open the door.”
Ye Xue was disgusted, her skin crawling. “Screw you!”
She pulled out a stack of talismans and threw them at the ghost. “Copying my voice, huh? Looking for death!”
The ghost shrieked as the talismans hit her, and the maggots in her mouth fell to the ground.
Ye Xue immediately leaped back to avoid getting dirty, raising her hand to throw a talisman to the floor. “Taishang Tai Xing, change without pause.”
Flames erupted, engulfing the squirming maggots, instantly burning them to a crisp.
The ghost’s chest was charred black, and smoke hissed from the wound.
She glared at Ye Xue in resentment before turning around to leave.
“Did I say you could leave?!” Ye Xue shouted.
With a swift kick, Ye Xue raised her sword and thrust it forward. She had even applied cinnabar to the blade, drawing a symbol on the ghost’s face, chanting, “Exorcise and destroy evil!”
The sword struck the ghost’s chest with force, and her face contorted in agony as her shrill screams grew louder.
Behind the door, Wei Cainin and He Siqi were both getting a headache from the noise, their ears ringing.
Wei Cainin covered her ears, pained, and said, “Why does it sound like there are two Ye Xues?”
He Siqi, equally confused, replied, “I don’t know!”
Did this ghost come with a twin?
The ghost pressed against the door, her body twisting as the force grew stronger.
Ye Xue pulled out an exorcism talisman, preparing to send the ghost off once and for all. She slapped it onto the ghost’s face, saying coldly, “Screw you!”
A loud “bang” rang out.
The already fragile hotel room door, under multiple shocks, finally couldn’t withstand the force and collapsed.
He Siqi quickly grabbed Wei Cainin and pulled her back, both of them wide-eyed, watching in stunned silence. The wariness in their eyes faded somewhat when they saw Ye Xue sheathing her sword.
He Siqi hesitated before asking, “Are you… real or fake?”
Ye Xue sighed, “Real.”
Her hands were red from the exertion, and she stared at the broken door with a frustrated expression.
The loud noise had naturally woken up other students in nearby rooms.
Ye Xue’s classmates hurried out of their rooms, asking, “What happened? Was there an earthquake?”
“Uh…”
They looked at the scene inside, stunned, and then gazed at the three standing by the door.
One of them timidly asked, “What’s going on?”
Ye Xue stepped on the ghost’s face and kicked her into the room, responding calmly, “Nothing much, just opened the door too hard and accidentally broke it.”
Wei Cainin and He Siqi quickly followed suit, nodding, “Yeah, the door was kind of stuck and not responding well.”
Upon hearing this, the others were even more shocked.
How careless could one be to collapse a door like that?
One male student weakly asked, “Do we need to pay for the door?”
Ye Xue remained calm, “I’ll contact the hotel staff later.”
Of course, they would pay—who wouldn’t compensate for breaking someone else’s property?
However, when Ye Xue looked at the broken door panel, she couldn’t help but feel a bit of heartache.
How much did that cost, in yuan?
The commotion on the fifth floor quickly caught the attention of the hotel staff.
When the staff saw the damaged door, their lips twitched.
The other students quickly returned to their rooms to rest.
Ye Xue and the others discussed compensation with the staff.
The staff member, having been woken up in the middle of the night, looked a bit irritated but managed to maintain a friendly demeanor. After receiving a phone call, her expression softened.
She turned to Ye Xue and said, “Miss Ye, leave the rest to us. You can go back to your room and rest.”
Wei Cainin and He Siqi were taken aback, and He Siqi couldn’t help but ask, “Do we not have to pay for the door?”
The staff member smiled. “No, it’s fine. We’ll take care of it.”
Wei Cainin and He Siqi exchanged glances.
Ye Xue figured something out and nodded. “Thank you.”
She turned to Wei Cainin and He Siqi. “We probably can’t sleep in this room anymore. Let’s go back to my room.”
The staff member suggested, “I’ll take you two to the sixth floor and get a new room.”
But after what had happened, Wei Cainin and He Siqi didn’t dare sleep alone again, shaking their heads desperately. “No, no, we’ll sleep with Ye Xue.”
Seeing this, the staff member didn’t press the issue.
Ye Xue sealed the ghost in a bottle, securing it with a talisman.
The three of them went up to the fifth floor.
Ye Xue opened the door to her room, where Gao Lan was sleeping soundly on the bed.
The noise from the fourth floor had not woken her up.
He Siqi couldn’t help but envy, “She sleeps well.”
The two single beds were just enough for the three of them.
Wei Cainin was about to lie down on Ye Xue’s bed when she suddenly remembered something and turned to Ye Xue, asking, “Do you believe in science?”
She had always thought that they, especially the two of them, were the least superstitious in the dorm, but who knew that Ye Xue could take out ghosts with a punch?
He Siqi: “…”
Ye Xue gave an innocent look. “Am I not scientific enough?”
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