Chapter 6

Chapter 6

I stumbled back.

The paper effigy sat up, its charred face gradually transforming into a replica of mine.

“Do you understand now?” it said. “The one who left that night wasn’t Zhou Jiu. It was a Paper Effigy that borrowed Zhou Jiu’s life.”

“Impossible,” I murmured.

“You like looking for evidence,” it said, watching me. “Then look.”

I rushed back into the main room, flipped open my laptop, and connected to my mobile hotspot. The signal was only one bar, but the webpage actually managed to load.

I searched for old news regarding the Huailing fire fifteen years ago.

The news page loaded slowly.

Seven victims.

One survivor.

The survivor’s name was redacted.

I clicked on a photo taken at the scene by a reporter. The image was clearer than the black-and-white photo in my phone’s album.

A seven-year-old “me” stood before the ruins.

His feet cast no shadow.

Meanwhile, in the shadows of the ruins, another child sat, his left hand tightly clutching a charred wooden plaque. A single character was carved into the wood.

Jiu.

I stared at the photo, my stomach churning.

The computer cursor began moving on its own again.

The report document reopened.

A line of text appeared in the anomaly log:

Identity of test sleeper confirmed.

The next line followed:

Return to origin?

The cursor hovered between “Yes” and “No.”

I reached out to shut down the computer, but the screen reflected a shadow behind me.

The grown-up version of “me” was standing at the entrance of the main room.

He was the same height as me, just as thin, wearing black clothes singed by fire. The left side of his face was a mangled mess of burns, while the right side was perfectly intact-exactly how I looked now.

“Don’t choose ‘No’,” he said. “If you do, the Zhou Family won’t be able to leave tonight.”

“Aren’t they already dead?”

He looked at the spirit tablets on the altar. “Dying inside the gate and dying in the world of the living are two different things.”

A gong suddenly rang out from outside.

It wasn’t the electronic speakers used by modern funeral troupes, but an old brass gong. Each strike sounded as if it were being hammered out from beneath the earth.

The grown-up “me” said, “The Return of the Spirit has begun.”

The white lanterns in the courtyard all lit up.

Numerous feet appeared beneath the gap under the door.

Some wore cloth shoes, some were barefoot, some were the feet of children, and some were burned down to the bone. They crowded outside the door, gently thumping against it.

“What are those?” I asked.

“Things from inside the Fire Gate,” he said. “The Zhou Family has guarded the gate for generations. What’s pressed behind that door isn’t just the seven members of your family.”

“They want to come in?”

“They’re looking for a living soul.”

I forced a bitter smile. “But I might not even be a living person.”

“You’ve lived more like a person than I have,” he said calmly. “You have a name, an ID card, a job, and colleagues. You’ve lived in my place for fifteen years.”

“Then what do you want?”

He looked toward the computer. “Finish the report. Once the report is complete, the house can be classified as a non-anomalous asset. The gate will descend back into the world of the living, and everything will follow it out.”

I froze. “Who told you to do this?”

He didn’t answer.

I suddenly remembered the note on the dispatch system: Orders cannot be rejected.

And Old Xu’s words over the phone: “I left some food for you in the house.”

This wasn’t a task given to me by a ghost.

Someone in the world of the living had placed this order.

I opened the company’s internal system and used a backup account to trace the source of the dispatch. After the page redirected several times, the client information popped up.

Client: Huailing Cultural Tourism Development Co., Ltd.

Asset Type: Folk Culture Boutique B&B Project.

Original Site: old Zhou residence.

Note: Must eliminate rumors of a haunted house and obtain a passing test sleeper report.

I stared at the screen, a chill running down my spine.

Someone wanted to build a bed and breakfast right on top of the Fire Gate.

And my report would be the key that opened the gate for them.