Chapter 619 - 228: "Haunted" (1)
Chapter 619: Chapter 228: "Haunted" (1)
A sudden gust of eerie wind swept into the room. The windows blew wide open with a CLANG, CLANG. The candles extinguished instantly, and the bed curtains whipped around wildly like funeral banners.
"Ah!" Third Ms. Bai let out a shriek and clung even tighter to Yan Cheng.
Yan Cheng was also quite startled. The lust in his eyes completely faded. He tossed Third Ms. Bai aside and tightened his belt, staring vigilantly out the window. His body shifted into a defensive stance, as if a monster might leap in from outside at any moment.
A strange, wailing WOO, WOO sound echoed around them, sounding like a call from hell. It was accompanied by the distant chime of brass bells and the harsh CLINK of heavy chains dragging across the ground.
Yan Cheng’s scalp tingled with terror, his eyes bulging so much they nearly popped out of their sockets. "Who’s playing tricks? Come out, show yourself! Do you think I’m scared? I have never respected gods or buddhas in my life, nor do I fear ghosts or spirits. I have a clear conscience before the heavens, and even in death, I am unashamed before the earth..."
"What a bold claim. I almost believed it. Yan Cheng, have you truly never done anything to feel guilty about in your life? What about me? Can you say you did right by me?"
A female ghost appeared out of thin air in the room. She drifted with the wind, her long hair hanging down and obscuring her face. Dressed in white, she laughed eerily. "I died such a tragic death. Yan Cheng, the river water was so cold. Why haven’t you come to join me..."
Suddenly, she raised her head. Tears of blood streamed from her eyes, and water dripped from her snow-white clothes with a SPLAT, SPLAT. The dripping water smelled salty and metallic, making it seem as if she had just crawled out of the river.
Xu Su Ying had died in a river all those years ago. Recognizing the female ghost as Xu Su Ying—looking almost exactly as she did twenty years ago—Third Ms. Bai and Yan Cheng let out successive screams. They scrambled backward in a panic, grabbing at tables, chairs, stools, and even the hanging curtains in a desperate attempt to cover their bodies.
Third Ms. Bai usually had plenty of courage, but at this moment, she was scared out of her wits. She shrank into the corner of the walls in a panic, clutching her head and screaming over and over again.
"Ah! Ah! I wasn’t the one who killed you! I didn’t want to kill you. You fell into the undercurrent and were dragged down yourself!
"Xu Su Ying, Xu Su Ying, please let me go. Wasn’t I your favorite sister? Spare my life..."
In her sheer panic, Third Ms. Bai didn’t even know what she was blabbering about. Yan Cheng didn’t fare much better.
Every year during the Qingming and Ghost Festivals, he would burn incense and pay his respects at the cenotaph he had set up for Xu Su Ying. He treated himself as a grieving widower, vowing that he would be willing to spend his entire life guarding her cenotaph. Countless times, in a state of half-drunken stupor, he had told his friends and colleagues, "Suying is my wife. Why didn’t they take my life instead so that she could remain in this world?"
It sounded so touching that he almost believed it himself. But only he knew just how hypocritical he truly was, and how terrified he felt that she might come knocking on his door in the dead of night.
Yan Cheng’s pupils dilated. He was too paralyzed by fear to move a single step. Trembling, he stammered, "Suying, I’m innocent. I didn’t mean to harm you. I just didn’t know how to swim, so I couldn’t save you..."
"Heh. Haha. Hahahaha!" The female ghost burst into maniacal laughter. As she laughed, her hair thrashed wildly like river weeds, and her clothes flapped loudly in the howling wind. Her clothes were clearly dry, yet the sound of river water dripping onto the floor beneath her feet continued. DRIP, DRIP.
It sounded like the gavel of fate’s judgment, or a countdown to the end of their lives. In an instant, the horrifying atmosphere reached its peak, making Yan Cheng and Third Ms. Bai scream once more.
The female ghost floated right in front of them, her neck twisted at an unnatural angle. She looked at Third Ms. Bai, then at Yan Cheng. Still weeping tears of blood, she asked Third Ms. Bai, "I was your favorite sister? You’ve told so many lies that you’ve even fooled yourself, haven’t you?"
Then she turned to Yan Cheng. "You’re innocent? You don’t know how to swim at all, so you couldn’t save me, is that it?"
The two of them shook like leaves in the wind, entirely unable to utter a single word in response.
Xu Su Ying wiped the smile from her face, revealing a hideous and terrifying expression. "I’m already a ghost, and you still want to lie to me? It was the two of you who murdered me. I won’t let you go. You’re both coming down to hell with me."
She reached out her long, blood-dripping nails, lunging forward to claim both their lives.
Yan Cheng screamed frantically, "I-I know how to swim! I wanted to go back and save you! But Third Ms. Bai said there was an undercurrent there, that anyone who fell in would die. I-I was scared. I didn’t dare! Suying, Suying, you said it yourself—that I would restore the prestige of Court Chengyi Mansion in the future. If I die, who will revitalize the Yan family? How could you bear to make my gray-haired parents bury their child?"
Third Ms. Bai also cried, "My foster brother already repaid my debt! I don’t want to go to hell! I can’t go to hell!"