Chapter 108

Chapter 108

Huahua said, “You’d better think this through. If you tell me another story I’ve heard before, I really am going to look down on you.”

Qin Song said, “This one’s pretty niche. Maybe you haven’t heard it.”

Huahua opened her iPad again, and Qin Song finally saw the notes she’d been taking while listening to stories earlier:

“Wang Hai is a pig.”

Huahua deleted the words as if nothing had happened, then looked up at Qin Song and said, “Go on.”

Qin Song drew in a breath. “Once upon a time, there was… a person.”

Huahua said, “A person? A man or a woman?”

Qin Song rolled his neck. “A woman.”

Huahua said, “Okay, once upon a time there was a woman. Then what? What happened to her?”

Qin Song said, “Once upon a time, there was a woman who killed her lover in a hotel room.”

Huahua said, “How did she kill him?”

Qin Song said, “During a fight, she hit her lover in the head with a hard object. He died on the spot.”

As he said this, Qin Song’s right hand began to tremble faintly again, unconsciously.

Huahua asked, “Why did she kill him?”

Qin Song thought for a moment and said, “The man was obsessive, unhinged, and he caused her divorce. On top of that, the woman had just lost both her parents and was going through the most painful period of her life – her mental state was already unstable.”

Huahua said, “Manslaughter. Crime of passion. That woman had it pretty rough.”

Qin Song said, “I don’t know. Maybe.”

Huahua said, “Keep going.”

Qin Song said, “After killing him, the woman was terrified, but she didn’t want to turn herself in. She hadn’t lived enough yet. So she stayed in the hotel room until late that night. After there was no one left in the hallway, she found a huge woven sack, stuffed the body inside, and carried it downstairs.”

Huahua asked in confusion, “This woman was that strong? Strong enough to carry a man?”

Qin Song said, “Oh, a friend from the north told me this story. You know how it is. Northern women are stronger.”

Huahua said, “Your horror story even comes with regional flavor.”

Qin Song said, “She drove her lover’s body to a nearby construction site. There were some freshly dug pits there. By then, it was the dead of night, and there wasn’t a single worker at the site. She planned to throw the woven sack into one of the pits, then cover it with a thick layer of dirt. That way, once the workers filled in the pit the next morning, no one in the world would ever discover she’d killed someone.”

Huahua asked, “Did she succeed?”

Qin Song said, “At first, everything went smoothly. She carried the woven sack the whole way without running into anyone. But when she was about ten meters from the pit, someone suddenly appeared on the construction site out of nowhere! The woman couldn’t see the person’s gender or face. All she could see was them walking around with a flashlight, shining it everywhere. But all around her was open ground. There were only bricks of all sizes scattered on the ground, along with branches thick and thin. There was nothing to hide behind. The woods were about a hundred meters behind her.”

Huahua said, “Oh my God, is she about to get caught?!”

Qin Song said, “The woman panicked. She crouched down, laid the woven sack on the ground, and crouched there herself. Only then did she feel a wave of exhaustion hit her, like her strength had been drained out of her – she hadn’t eaten anything for an entire day.”

Huahua asked, “Did the person with the flashlight come over?”

Qin Song nodded. “Yes. That person came closer and closer. Seeing the beam of the flashlight about to fall on her, the woman quickly turned her back and crept toward the woods as quietly as she could. She didn’t even dare breathe loudly. The rocks and branches underfoot cut her feet, but she couldn’t feel a thing.”

Huahua said, “But even if she ran, the body in the woven sack was still lying there!”

Qin Song said, “She couldn’t worry about that much at the time. Her first instinct was probably to get herself out of there as quickly as possible.”
He opened his thermos, took a sip of water, and went on. “By the time the woman ran into the woods, exhausted, and looked back, that beam of flashlight had already bobbed off into the distance – the person with the flashlight had gone somewhere farther away. So she felt her way back out of the woods in the dark.”

Huahua’s eyes went wide. “Don’t tell me the woven sack was gone.”

Qin Song shook his head. “No. The woven sack was still there. In the darkness, the woman finally found where it was and dragged it straight into the pit. After that, she found a shovel at the construction site and filled in a lot more dirt. But…”

Huahua said, “But what?”

Qin Song lowered his voice. “But she seemed to feel that the woven sack had been moved.”

Huahua shuddered.

Trembling, she asked, “M – Moved?”

Qin Song nodded.

Huahua said, “Do you think maybe her lover wasn’t actually dead, just unconscious… Then wouldn’t that mean she buried him alive?”

Qin Song froze for a second, then said, “Impossible. When my friend told me this story, he didn’t mention any plot that complicated.”

Huahua said, “Then why did the woven sack change position?”

Qin Song said, “That’s one of the terrifying parts of this story. Even the person telling it didn’t know the reason.”

Qin Song thought for a moment, then continued. “The next morning, the woman flew to America. She wanted to hide overseas for a while. She told her best friend what had happened. That friend was the only family she had in her heart.”

Huahua’s voice instantly rose. “Is she stupid? She told a friend about a murder?!”

Qin Song said, “Supposedly they were ride-or-die friends who’d grown up together. Don’t you girls have a saying about friendship? What was it again? If one person kills someone, the other helps her bury the body?”

Huahua said, “Oh my god, we only say that as a joke. The girl in your story actually did it!”

Qin Song said, “She saw her best friend as her own sister, and in this world, there’s nothing you can’t tell your own sister. While she was hiding overseas, that friend helped her keep an ear out and watch for anything unusual. Later, it was also that friend who confirmed everything was safe and that there was no movement at all before she returned to the country. And her friend even introduced her to a new husband, letting her live a stable life again.”

Huahua said, “That’s not a best friend. That’s basically her mother…”

Qin Song said, “Maybe. How close the bonds between you women can get isn’t something I, as a man, can understand.”

Huahua suddenly said, “Wait, are those two lesbians? Why does this sound more and more like lilies blooming all over the mountains?”

Qin Song looked at Huahua like she was some kind of monster. “Good lord.”

Huahua said, “Back to the point, though. Why was there no stir at all after that lover got buried? Didn’t his family or friends look for him? This person vanished from the world, and there wasn’t even a ripple?”

Qin Song tried hard to recall, then said, “I think my friend said the man who was killed was an orphan, and he didn’t have any family or friends in the area.”

Huahua suddenly understood. “I get it. He was from out of town, came to the city to work, and then met this woman!”

Qin Song said, “That might have been the situation. But this is just a story. No need to dig too deep into the details.”

Huahua said, “That’s horrifying. If he disappeared, he was just completely gone.”

Qin Song said, “That’s right.”

Huahua said, “But at most, this story is kind of suspenseful. So where exactly is the horror?”

Qin Song said, “What I told you just now was only the basic outline. The truly terrifying part starts on the seventh day after the woman killed him…”