Chapter 212: Chapter 179: Bring It On
After a round of questioning, she got no useful information. Sun Shengnan, already anxious, waved her hand, signaling her assistant to send the old electrician away.
When she was alone in the room, Sun Shengnan took out her phone and called Pei Qiuyu directly.
"I’m asking you, where is Chu Xi, and where is that coat he was wearing?" Clutching her phone, Sun Shengnan was truly anxious. The ghost had already appeared nearby; this time, Lu Ji and Song Yan took the hit, next time, she feared it might be her turn.
"The coat..." Pei Qiuyu thought for a moment, "You mean the prop coat he was wearing? It seems... it seems he took it off."
Sun Shengnan felt a buzzing in her head. Now it all matched up. Without the coat to attract the ghost’s attention, Teacher Wang’s resentful spirit indeed found its way here.
"Pei Qiuyu, what are you dallying for? Go and grab that bitch Xu Yu. I want evidence!" Sun Shengnan urged.
Hearing that a ghost appeared at Sun Shengnan’s location and had attacked Lu Ji and Song Yan, Pei Qiuyu started to doubt, "Ms. Shengnan, don’t panic, beware of deceit!"
"What deceit? Both of them fell from upstairs, Song Yan broke his arm, and Lu Ji’s nose and mouth are bleeding. Whether he can be saved is still a question!" The thought of their terrible condition made Sun Shengnan feel incredibly nervous. If found by the ghost, her fate would only be worse.
"Half the crew saw that thing, it’s here! It’s in this building, I can feel it!" Sun Shengnan was now hysterical.
Pei Qiuyu took a deep breath. The situation was far beyond her expectations. She knew all too well what kind of people Song Yan and Lu Ji were. These people all had their own schemes, and they would never gamble with their lives for someone else’s benefit.
In other words, if the situation were reversed and Song Yan and Lu Ji were uninjured while Yu Mi was the one severely injured, then there definitely would be a problem, most likely caused by the two men throwing Yu Mi out of the window to stage the scene.
However, this was good news for Pei Qiuyu. First, Song Yan and Lu Ji were practically invalidated, tantamount to crippling Chu Xi’s left and right hand. As for the remaining Yu Mi, Pei Qiuyu never really considered her a player. Now that the ghost was gone, she could move freely and go after Xu Yu.
Now, in this forest, there were only two fake ghosts left: one was herself, and the other was Xu Yu!
"Ms. Shengnan, you keep an eye on Yu Mi, Song Yan, and the others; don’t let them play any tricks. I’ll go catch that bitch Xu Yu right away!"
Speed was of the essence. Pei Qiuyu needed to find Xu Yu and capture evidence of her faking as a ghost before Chu Xi and the others realized what was happening.
Not far from the teaching building, in a secluded spot, Xu Yu sent a message to Yang Xiao. Her heart was racing violently. Just moments ago, she witnessed two figures crashing through the glass and falling to the ground below.
It was also at that moment that she understood the weight of Yang Xiao’s words: "You can trust him as much as you trust me."
Not long ago, as per the agreed time, she appeared outside the teaching building, dressed in a white suit, and indeed caused a disturbance, followed by the entire building’s lights suddenly going out.
The plan was proceeding smoothly. Every person was like a cog in a piece of precision machinery, working in conjunction, essential and indispensable.
She had completed her task, and Song Yan’s trio had fulfilled their mission. Next, it would be Yang Xiao’s turn to perform.
...
Thanks to the accuracy of the map, Pei Qiuyu arrived at marker No. 6 ahead of Yang Xiao, and it was also the necessary route that Yang Xiao and his group would take to leave.
Pei Qiuyu could roughly guess Xu Yu’s purpose for playing ghost tonight, certainly targeting Xia Xiuyan.
In collusion with that sly fellow Chu Xi, one overt and one covert, they aimed to pry open Xia Xiuyan’s mouth and have her fully disclose the incident from years ago.
Therefore, Pei Qiuyu deduced that Xu Yu would not be too far away from the two; just follow Chu Xi and his group, and they would lead her to Xu Yu.
Soon, noises began to travel through the woods. Pei Qiuyu hid behind a tree, only exposing half of her face to observe.
The noise grew louder, as if someone were running. Then two figures appeared in Pei Qiuyu’s field of vision, Yang Xiao dragging Xia Xiuyan, both in a frantic escape.
Not far behind them, a figure in a white suit weaved through the trees, ghost-like in its movements.
"Heh, quite the convincing act," Pei Qiuyu kept a close watch on the figure in the white suit; due to the dim light, she could only make out its silhouette.
Having been through such Nightmare Worlds several times before, Pei Qiuyu knew some of the rules; a ghost would not kill multiple times in quick succession. So... this ghost must be Xu Yu in disguise!
She surmised that the two had guessed she would be lurking nearby and purposely staged this scene to mislead, most certainly Chu Xi’s cunning idea.
For caution’s sake, Pei Qiuyu did not make any rash moves but took out the camera she carried with her. Seeing the steady white figure on the screen, Pei Qiuyu felt confident in her assumption.
Indeed it was a human disguised as a ghost. That bitch Xu Yu had teamed up with Chu Xi; Pei Qiuyu grew angrier the more she thought about it. She picked up the camera and quietly followed the white figure.
The white figure didn’t seem in a hurry to chase Yang Xiao and Xia Xiuyan, and merely trudged through the muddy mountain path, sinking in deep with every step.
"What a performance, why don’t you make a movie? You should be the lead actor."
Those oddities, in Pei Qiuyu’s eyes, had taken on an entirely different flavor, perceived only as Xu Yu’s overdramatic acting, determined to give this friend a proper welcome. Pei Qiuyu had deliberately located a thick tree branch along the way, picked it up, and brandished it a few times with considerable heft, finding it quite handy.
Soon, Pei Qiuyu found her opportunity. Ahead was a turn in the path over a dirt hill which Chu Xi and Xia Xiuyan had just run past, quickly disappearing from sight.
Pei Qiuyu took a shortcut to ambush "Xu Yu" on her expected path, hiding behind a crooked tree, step by step, the figure drew nearer.
Sure enough, Xu Yu was academically minded, without a hint of vigilance, and as the figure passed by the crooked tree, Pei Qiuyu sprang out, the wooden stick swinging fiercely, aiming straight for the back of "Xu Yu’s" head.
"Take this!!"
She put about 70 percent of her strength into the blow, which, while it wouldn’t kill on the spot, would ensure a few months in a hospital bed was certain. Pei Qiuyu had her own thoughts; she wasn’t going to be fooled by anyone, including Sun Shengnan. She had to neutralize Xu Yu, the threat.
"Bang!"
The stick landed heavily on the back of the figure’s head, and as it tilted, the body... uh... wobbled, but then, it astonishingly straightened up.
Under Pei Qiuyu’s horrified gaze, the figure’s twisted neck grew longer and more contorted until it rotated 180 degrees, revealing an iron-blue face.
Clatter.
Pei Qiuyu’s fingers loosened, and the wooden stick fell to the ground.
Her mind went blank. She couldn’t understand why a ghost would appear here; after all... it had only just killed someone in the school building.
But none of that mattered now. Pei Qiuyu moved her numb legs, turning to run, but the next second, what she saw froze all the blood in her body.
Behind her, in the woods, several bodies were haphazardly hanging, suspended from the branches, their hands dangling lifelessly, weights tied to their feet, and their necks... their necks stretched out long.
As the night breeze blew by, the bodies swayed slightly, as if to greet Pei Qiuyu.
"Creak—"
"Creak—"
The thick ropes bearing the bodies creaked, struggling to hold the burden. Pei Qiuyu stared in shock at everything before her, recognizing some of the bodies.
Nie Hexiang, Tang Cui, Xiang Xiaolin, Luo Zhaoqing, and two crew members whose faces looked familiar... There was also a woman, not very old by the looks of her clothes, but with an iron-blue face and horrifically bulging eyes—surely Sun Zhen.
The very next second, before Pei Qiuyu could react, a hemp rope hanging from above looped accurately around her neck and tightened instantly, lifting her off her feet.
Elsewhere, Yang Xiao and Xia Xiuyan reached marker number 6 without issue and casually took down the number plate, but when they arrived at the final marker number 7, they encountered a problem.
After searching the area, they could not find the number 7 marker.
"Stop looking, let’s go back," Yang Xiao let out a breath that had been weighing on his chest. He looked back; there had been no signs of movement for quite a while, Pei Qiuyu was probably gone for good.
The image of Director Ding’s final caution flashed across Xia Xiuyan’s mind. "Going back without all the number plates, can we... can that work?"
Yang Xiao suddenly laughed, casting a strange look at Xia Xiuyan, "Know why we can’t find it? Because they never placed the last marker in the first place."
Xia Xiuyan was startled, then the realization hit her, she exclaimed, "They never intended for us to make it back alive?"
"Exactly, your Ms. Shengnan really does care about you," said Yang Xiao. He must make Xia Xiuyan lose hope, only by severing her thoughts could he ensure her cooperation with him.
"That bastard!" Realization dawned on Xia Xiuyan, and she gritted her teeth with hatred, "After all I’ve done for her, she doesn’t care if I live or die, that bitch, she deserves to die! She deserves death!!"
"Mr. Chu, let’s go back. I want to expose her true face in person!" Xia Xiuyan was either sincere or acting, but her stance was very clear.
But this little trick didn’t fool Yang Xiao, who slapped Xia Xiuyan across the face, then grabbed her by the collar and pinned her against a tree, "Don’t fucking think I don’t know what you’re plotting. Go back now? That place is all Sun Shengnan’s people. As soon as you get there, you’d recant and someone would snatch the camera away to delete the evidence. Try any more tricks and I’ll kill you!"
"Come on, let’s go to the police station and clear this up!" Yang Xiao, still unsatisfied, kicked Xia Xiuyan fiercely twice more. Even at this point, she was still thinking of harming others. Some people truly were rotten to the core. If she wasn’t still useful, Yang Xiao would have sacrificed her there and then.
Sure enough, after such a beating, Xia Xiuyan became much more compliant, especially upon hearing Yang Xiao threaten to leave her alone in the woods. She quickly admitted her errors, crying pitiful tears.
Yang Xiao led a solitary life and had never even touched a girl’s hand, but today he had been rough with a woman repeatedly, something that damaged his own character. But when he thought of Xia Xiuyan’s past actions, he felt he had been too lenient.
"You still have the face to cry? Hold it back!"
"I’m counting to three!"
