Chapter 132
Chapter 132
Time crawled by, second after second.
The three of us sat in the main room, holding our breath and saying nothing.
All I could hear was my own heartbeat, the others’ breathing, and the faint tick-tock of the clock on the wall.
I glanced up at it.
It was almost midnight, but the vicious entity still hadn’t appeared. Irritation crept into my heart.
“What’s going on? Is it not coming tonight? Or is it smart enough to realize its grave has been dug up, so it’s lying low for now?”
Countless possibilities flashed through my mind.
Anyone would suffer from keeping their nerves stretched tight for so long, much less a middle school kid like me.
Still, ancient people divided each day into twelve double-hours, each equivalent to two modern hours.
The Hour of the Rat ran from eleven at night until one in the morning.
We were only halfway through it.
Besides, that period was merely when ghosts and other evil beings were most active and relatively strongest. It didn’t mean they could only emerge during the Hour of the Rat.
We wouldn’t truly be safe until the rooster crowed.
I sighed inwardly.
“Looks like we’re in for a long night.”
Beside me, Xia Sanjin suddenly whispered, “Young Mr. Wu, I need to use the bathroom. Is that all right?”
I couldn’t help laughing.
“That’s fine, Secretary Xia. Go ahead. It won’t disrupt the arrangements we made.”
“Good, good…”
Xia Sanjin nodded, stood, and started toward the bathroom on the west side of the main room.
After taking one step, he turned back.
“Degui, do you need to pee? Want to go together?”
Xia Degui frowned. “I didn’t before you asked, but now that you mention it…I kind of do. Let’s go.”
They both turned to look at me, and I hurriedly shook my head.
“I’m staying. I have to keep watching the front door, or that thing might get in without us even noticing. You two had better make it quick.”
“Of course, Young Mr. Wu. We’re both very fast.”
With that, they headed for the bathroom.
It wasn’t until many years later, in the age of the internet, that I learned a man bragging about being fast was not necessarily a good thing.
Once I was alone, the main room seemed even quieter.
I stared fixedly at the courtyard gate, waiting for the entity to enter.
The red cord swayed in the night wind, but nothing else happened.
I had to admit, Xia Sanjin and Xia Degui really were fast.
The second hand on the wall clock had barely made half a revolution before they returned together.
Thirty seconds, in other words.
“We’re back, Young Mr. Wu.”
“All right. Sit down and keep waiting. We have to settle this tonight.”
My voice was firm.
After all, I could stay in Xia Family Hamlet only through tomorrow at the latest.
We had seven days off for National Day. I intended to spend a few days at home with my parents and Master, then return early to Lianghe Town to ask Old Cao and Li Miao about the Fubei County Gazetteer.
Oh, and somewhere in between, I needed to go into the mountains and visit Bai Su and Huihui, see how her injuries were healing, and chat with her. Talking to a monster was a great way to broaden my horizons.
I was busy. I couldn’t waste all my time in Xia Family Hamlet.
As all these thoughts ran through my mind, I happened to glance at Xia Degui from the corner of my eye.
My scalp instantly prickled, and my pupils contracted.
I shot to my feet and seized Xia Degui’s left hand.
The sudden movement made both men jump.
“What’s wrong, Young Mr. Wu?”
I raised Xia Degui’s hand and stared at his wrist, my voice full of shock and disbelief.
Even my pitch changed.
“Your wrist… What happened to it? What is that black ring? Secretary Xia, shine your flashlight on it.”
Xia Degui was a big, powerful man. When working construction in the city, he often led his crew into brawls with rival teams over jobs.
Yet with me clutching his hand now, he barely dared to breathe, much less move.
Seeing my expression, Xia Sanjin didn’t dare ask questions.
He quickly switched on his flashlight and shone it over Xia Degui’s wrist.
Under the beam, I stared at the black ring encircling his wrist. An icy, evil presence radiated continuously from the mark.
I turned Xia Degui’s hand slightly.
On the palm side of his wrist were five distinct, slender black lines, unlike the solid patch of darkness covering the back.
They were unmistakably finger marks.
A chill shot from the soles of my feet to the top of my head.
A horrifying scene immediately formed in my mind.
Xia Sanjin and Xia Degui had been urinating, utterly unaware that some dreadful thing stood behind or beside them, watching with a ghastly gaze.
On their way back, the vicious entity had simply taken Xia Degui by the wrist and followed the two of them from the bathroom into the main room.
Its body belonged to a little girl, after all, so its hand was small.
Its fingers couldn’t close around Xia Degui’s wrist.
That was why five separate black finger marks had appeared. Otherwise, the entire ring would have been solid black.
The entity’s tiny, pitch-black handprint stood out clearly beneath the flashlight beam.
I didn’t need to explain. Both men understood at once.
I said grimly, “That thing…is already inside. It held your wrist and followed you back from the bathroom. It might be standing right beside us now.”
“Holy crap!”
Xia Sanjin finally lost his composure. He shook uncontrollably and pressed himself against me.
Xia Degui fared a little better. Perhaps he was simply tougher, or perhaps he felt slightly less frightened because the entity had formed from his daughter’s body.
At that instant, the light in the main room went out.
Not only the incandescent bulb hanging overhead, but also the kerosene lamp we had prepared and the flashlight in Xia Sanjin’s hand–all of them went dark.
The entire room plunged into blackness.
Worse, the temperature around us seemed to drop several degrees, sending an icy chill over my skin.
I sneered inwardly. “Plunging the living into darkness–the standard entrance for an evil being. Too bad I’ve come prepared!”
I circulated my qi, expelled a breath, and roared, “Talisman fire, burn the evil!”
I had already pinched a talisman between the fingers of each hand. I tossed them upward, and they ignited with a roar.
Two balls of talisman fire hovered in midair.
The darkness immediately dispersed, and the frigid atmosphere rapidly receded.
The incandescent bulb overhead shone again. The kerosene lamp was still burning, and Xia Sanjin’s flashlight still cast its beam.
Humanity’s greatest fear came from the unknown.
Ordinary people were undoubtedly afraid of ghosts, but in a brightly lit place where they could see everything clearly, they could still muster some courage even when facing one.
In utter darkness, however, they were little more than lambs awaiting slaughter.
Powerful evil beings carried dense yin energy that could cloud some of the five senses or affect their surroundings to a limited degree.
Lights might seem to stop working, for example, or flames might mysteriously go out.
In reality, the lights hadn’t truly failed, nor had the flames actually been extinguished.
Any ghost capable of doing that for real would be far beyond my ability to handle.
Instead, the yin energy it released caused the illusion. It both weakened our visual perception and gathered around the light sources to stop their glow from spreading.
I had just ignited the talismans with qi to produce two balls of talisman fire.
Talisman fire contained far more pure yang energy than ordinary flame, allowing it to disperse yin energy’s influence with ease.
I said gravely, “The lights aren’t affected anymore. You two be careful. I’ll destroy the entity.”
At that moment, I had no attention to spare for how it had bypassed all my defenses and entered the house. Nor could I stop to determine whether it was a spiritual ghost or a physical corpse-fiend.
There had to be a very troublesome explanation.
For now, however, the only thing that mattered was meeting it head-on and fighting first.