chapter 9

Here she comes!

Cheng Miao bit her lip. Without stopping her hands, she turned just enough to see what was happening behind her.

A dress as red as fresh blood billowed around the girl. Her two black pigtails bounced with every movement, and a yellowing jump rope repeatedly swept over her head in smooth arcs. White socks disappeared into black leather shoes that kicked up dust with every hop.

Liu Xue stood with her back to Cheng Miao and the others, jumping rope at the stairwell entrance. The courtyard’s few remaining sounds abruptly vanished, leaving the entire world as silent as death.

There was no wind, no rustle of leaves, not even the sound of Liu Xue’s rope…

Cheng Miao suppressed her rapid breathing. Her heart hammered in her ears, and for one moment she had the illusion that she was the only living person in the world.

The only living person…?

Alarm flashed through Cheng Miao. She jerked her head around. The three children who had been digging furiously beside her had stopped at some unknown moment.

All three knelt motionless behind her with their heads bowed. Heavy shadows covered their once-innocent faces.

At some point, they had become as rigid and still as corpses long dead…

Liu Xue remained turned away, hopping with solemn concentration as she swung her rope.

Withered leaves that had been on the verge of falling now hung miraculously still on their branches. It was as if someone had pressed pause on everything except Cheng Miao and Liu Xue.

A silent horror film unfolded across the gloomy courtyard. Cheng Miao felt surprisingly calm inside, aside from a slight urge to cry. Of course this is a damn silent movie!

Sensing an outsider’s presence, Liu Xue slowly turned while continuing to jump. Her snowy face was hidden beneath black bangs, obscuring her expression. Small red lips moved gently, like those of a child singing a nursery rhyme while she skipped.

Then, slowly and without warning, thick blackening blood burst from the top of Liu Xue’s head, like water pouring from a bag that had suddenly been punctured.

The torrent engulfed her whole body and flooded the ground red. Her swinging rope flung blood into the air until even the sky seemed tinged crimson, making her look as though she were crawling out of a sea of blood.

Liu Xue grinned and silently mouthed words. Cheng Miao barely managed to read the nursery rhyme on her lips:

The flowers are red, the birds sing high;

Beneath the willow, the rope will fly;

One foot, two feet, leap and sway;

Faster and lighter, day by day…

Then Cheng Miao noticed that although Liu Xue was jumping in place, she moved like a figure in an old, stuttering action film. With every passing frame, the ghost crept a little closer…

Damn it! Whose kid is this terrifying?

They had clearly reached the final critical stage. The photograph had driven Liu Xue from the stairwell before, but against the ghost’s aggressive advance now, Cheng Miao knew it would be useless. Her only choice was to dig with all her strength.

She did not dare touch the three companions who were obviously no longer right, nor did she dare turn her back on Liu Xue, who now looked like Carrie. All she could do was angle her body sideways and claw madly at the earth.

Liu Xue’s remains were small, so Cheng Miao soon had a shallow grave. She did not spare another glance for the approaching ghost or her three fair-weather companions, whose heads were slowly rising. She lifted Liu Xue’s skeleton into the hole, tossed in the pills from her pocket, and frantically shoveled the loose soil back with her hands.

The grave was shallow, so filling it took far less time than digging. By the time the last earth fell into place, Liu Xue was only an arm’s length away.

At last, Cheng Miao saw her eyes. Huge black pupils filled them completely, without a trace of white. Coupled with the blood streaking her face, they made for an overwhelmingly horrific sight.

One of Liu Xue’s hands had begun to rise, just as it had in the photograph, only to stop directly in front of Cheng Miao and fall still.

The three children remained kneeling stiffly around Cheng Miao like cold gravestones. Only their faces had changed, each wearing the same smile as Liu Xue.

Seeing such a smile on the children who had accompanied her throughout the entire instance created a jarring, unnatural horror. It was honestly hard to say whether they or Liu Xue were more frightening.

Even as Cheng Miao stared into this nightmarish scene, part of her mind wandered. She really had to thank the encounter with Doctor Xu. Without that training, she might have fainted on the spot.

The Liu Xue in the vision had been far scarier than this… Of course, Doctor Xu had been terrifying too. Sob, sob.

When Liu Xue remained frozen before her with a face guaranteed to ruin anyone’s sleep, Cheng Miao swallowed and spoke carefully. “Liu Xue, I know what happened to you. You suffered terribly. I hope you’re born into a good family in your next life.”

After Cheng Miao rambled through several more comforting phrases, her sharp eyes saw Liu Xue’s half-raised hand tremble. The girl’s entire figure flickered several times like a faulty light, then vanished.

In the distance, the iron gate gave a rusty creak and slowly opened a crack.

Before Cheng Miao could relax, Er Gou’s startled voice sounded behind her. “Sister Miaomiao, what are you looking at?”

She turned. All three children had returned to normal, with no memory of their brief possession.

“Sister Miaomiao, why are you looking at us like that?” Hu Zi asked curiously, edging a little farther away.

Cheng Miao had no words. Great. Now she was even more afraid of children…

There was no helping it. Since she still needed child labor, Cheng Miao could only take the three new sources of psychological trauma back to the clinic to retrieve Aunt Li’s remains.

The boss of this instance was Liu Xue, so in theory, burying Liu Xue’s bones should have been enough. But whether this was merely a small story inside a Game or a world that truly existed, Cheng Miao grieved for what had happened to Aunt Li.

The kind woman had lost her life for a child unrelated to her. Even after her death, prejudice had forced her to bear the reputation of a child kidnapper for more than ten years, all the way into the present-day instance.

Cheng Miao could not turn back time, but leaving Aunt Li’s remains in that clinic struck her as intolerably unfair.

She planted wooden boards before the two small graves as markers, then called over Hu Zi, the oldest and steadiest of the children.

“When you get home, tell your parents to call the police right away. Tell them we found human remains. There’s also a hidden room in the clinic. Doctor Xu, the man everyone revered more than ten years ago, was responsible for the missing children.”

When curiosity lit Er Gou’s eyes again, Cheng Miao’s face darkened. “Don’t even think of going inside yourselves. It’s a crime scene. There could be bodies and ghosts in there!”

Er Gou was exactly the sort of troublesome child who loved acting brave despite being a coward. After several stern warnings from Cheng Miao, he finally behaved.

Hu Zi nodded solemnly, as if entrusted with a vital mission. “When you come back later to identify the scene, remember to show the police where we buried the bodies. And the diary in the clinic is an important clue too.”

After giving them every instruction she could think of and deciding the police should be able to uncover the truth, Cheng Miao sighed. If this instance world was real, she hoped the child currently missing could still be saved.

She gave the two small graves one final look, then turned away without looking back and led the children toward the gate.