Chapter 396: Chapter 340: Under the Bed
"Whoosh——"
Cheng Cha abruptly stood up. The scene before him was too shocking; the number of ghosts trapped behind the screen far exceeded his expectations.
A moment later, Cheng Cha took a deep breath, then held his breath, turned around, put down the copper mirror, and slowly bent over to bring his face close to the floor. He peeked through the gap at the lower end of the screen frame, and sure enough, it was empty inside. Only with the help of the copper mirror as a medium could he see those filthy things.
Having confirmed this, Cheng Cha slowly turned back around, picked up the copper mirror again, and maintained his original posture, hoping to carefully observe the severed feet through the mirror and find some clues. But the next second, as the view beyond the gap reappeared in the mirror, he could not help but freeze. The dark-green severed feet had disappeared, and the ground was spotlessly clean.
His wrist shook, and the copper mirror almost fell to the ground. A sudden fear enveloped him, leaving his mind completely blank.
Cheng Cha did not know what had happened, but he knew he was in big trouble.
"Scrape——"
"Scrape——"
A faint scraping sound arose from behind him, like someone scratching lightly with their nails. The noise was not loud, but in the silent room, it was uncomfortably piercing. Cheng Cha dared not move a muscle; his whole body was cold as if his veins were filled with ice.
The location of the scraping sound was off; it wasn’t coming from behind him, but rather from above his head. As the noise became clearer and more frequent, an image slowly formed in Cheng Cha’s mind; atop the screen behind him, a row of green-faced, fierce ghosts with bared teeth was lurking.
The copper mirror in his hand was trembling violently. Cheng Cha thought several times about turning the mirror to face the top of the screen, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it for fear of making eye contact with a horde of fierce ghosts.
As time ticked by, what Cheng Cha feared the most still happened. His whole body was cold, and he could distinctly feel a chilling coldness emanating from behind him. He had indeed been noticed by the fierce ghosts. Although they hadn’t made a move yet, it was only a matter of time.
But... why? He hadn’t touched that wardrobe, and he had even been careful not to touch the screen.
He surely had been set up. The Du Family Village people must have done something to the screen without their knowledge. This was a damn trap!
But by now it was too late. Cheng Cha exhaled slowly, knowing he didn’t have much time left. Although he would die here, he absolutely couldn’t let those beasts from Du Family Village get off easy. Slowly lifting his left hand, he planned to bite his finger and leave clues for his teammates outside.
The guy who claimed to be Chu Xi was a clever man. With top-notch brains, skills, temperament, and the addition of Tong Han, if they found the clues he left, their chances of turning things around were high.
There were many things he had kept in his heart and not said. The feng shui of this village was dead. It wasn’t fit for living, not even ghosts could find peace here. He suspected that there wasn’t a single living person in the entire Du Family Village, and the current investigation was slowly confirming his suspicions.
As for the actual truth, he would have no chance to know now.
"Scrape——"
"Scrape——"
The sound of nails being scraped grew more rapid; those creatures lying on the screen could no longer contain themselves. Cheng Cha bit his finger, intending to write on the floor the words "Trap set by a master, bloodshed and killing, no living in village" as a warning.
But before he could write, the scraping noise from above suddenly ceased, and with it disappeared the malevolent gaze from behind him. Cheng Cha’s body went limp, freed from its restraints, and he nearly collapsed. Climbing to his feet, he tried to run, but he hadn’t gone far when he suddenly felt as if something had been added to the bridal chamber. A cold chill spread swiftly, filling up every corner of the room. But to Cheng Cha, this was not his concern; he just wanted to leave this cursed place.
However, on his short dash to the window, the distance felt endlessly long for Cheng Cha. He stumbled over a dozen steps, yet the distance to the window hadn’t shortened at all, and he had to stop, realizing he was experiencing ’Ghost Hitting the Wall’.
Forcing himself to calm down, Cheng Cha held his breath as his gaze slowly swept across the entire bridal chamber. The lighting in the room was very dim, and beyond a short distance, one couldn’t make out the details of the furniture, only vague dark silhouettes flitting about.
After looking around, Cheng Cha didn’t find anything unusual, but he was sure something else had entered the room, something different from the ghosts behind the screen.
Swallowing hard, Cheng Cha steeled himself and slowly raised the copper mirror in his hand. By constantly adjusting the angle and using the mirror’s reflection, he observed the room once more. This time, he saw a figure in a Red Bridal Veil sitting at the dressing table that was originally empty.
But the next second, the figure disappeared. This scared Cheng Cha out of his wits. He immediately spun the mirror around, searching the whole room. It wasn’t behind the door, not on the bed, not by the window, and not on the ceiling... Cheng Cha was sweating profusely with panic, his clothes damp with cold sweat, until the next second, when he seemed to suddenly realize something. Slowly turning the copper mirror, he aimed the reflective surface at himself.
His pupils shook violently. Behind his shoulder, he saw a dark red, dirty Red Bridal Veil. The missing figure was now clinging tightly to his back.
What was more terrifying was that the ghostly figure maintained a bizarrely eerie pose, its left arm rigidly raised, pointing to the other side of the room.
Cheng Cha shivered and turned her head, following the direction of the ghostly figure’s finger, she realized it was pointing at the bed, or more precisely, the area underneath it.
"Is there something under the bed?" This was Cheng Cha’s subconscious reaction.
At this moment, he was unsure whether the Red-dressed Fierce Ghost was the previously deceased Liu Haiping or another bride who had died in this bridal chamber. Now, he had no choice but to steel himself and slowly approach the bed. An overly active imagination was not always a good thing, as his biggest fear now was to lean over the edge of the bed and see a distorted corpse looking up at him.
The Red-dressed Fierce Ghost stood right behind him, following him to the side of the bed. Cheng Cha mustered the courage to look underneath and, to his surprise, found it empty -- there was nothing there.
But the Red-dressed Fierce Ghost still lifted her arm, pointing under the bed, which completely confused Cheng Cha. To save his life, he eventually forced himself to crawl under the bed. The space was so small that he couldn’t stretch out at all and had to curl up as much as possible.
And the Red-dressed Fierce Ghost remained at the edge of the bed, staring at his legs. Cheng Cha didn’t dare breathe too loudly, much less crawl out, wishing he could write down a million regrets for ending up under the bed.
Meanwhile, Yang Xiao, hiding on the exterior wall of the courtyard, also sensed that something was wrong. Cheng Cha had been inside for a long time without a sound.
A moment later, Yang Xiao heard footsteps, but not near the bridal chamber. Instead, they came from outside the courtyard gate. With the feeble moonlight, he saw several people approaching quickly and stealthily in the night, all without lanterns.
Yang Xiao promptly leaped from the top of the wall, and after landing, rolled forward to lessen the impact while keeping the noise to a minimum. He hurried to the door of the bridal chamber and knocked lightly but urgently, "Hurry up and get out, someone is coming!"
But no matter how much he knocked, there was no response from inside. The footsteps drew nearer and there was no time to wait. Yang Xiao decisively retreated, charged forward, grabbed the eaves of the wall, and quickly climbed up, then swiftly vaulted over the boundary.
Just a few seconds after Yang Xiao jumped over the wall, the courtyard door burst open, and the hurried footsteps entered, advancing towards the bridal chamber.
Although Yang Xiao was unclear on what had happened inside the bridal chamber, he knew things looked grim for Cheng Cha, having likely run into trouble while searching for clues, probably doomed.
If he died, it was a small matter, but the real trouble was his body being left in the room. Should the Du Family find it, they would surely realize that he and his associates had grown suspicious and come to investigate under the cover of night, complicating the situation even further.
Yet what puzzled Yang Xiao was the silence from those entering the room, as if they had not noticed anything amiss.
Naturally, Yang Xiao was unaware of Cheng Cha’s predicament; at this moment, Cheng Cha was curled up under the bed, watching the door being unlocked and several people entering.
There were three people in total. They coordinated immaculately, exchanging no words as one went straight to the window, another turned to close the door, and the last, seemingly the leader, pulled something from the backpack he carried while heading towards the corner screen.
As one of them closed the window, the room became even darker. Cheng Cha saw a dim glow emerge from the backpack of the third person, and at the same time, he caught a whiff of a very pungent smell of blood.
The next second, Cheng Cha shuddered violently. He knew what was being pulled from the backpack—a knife, a long bloodstained cleaver.
Almost simultaneously, he confirmed the identity of the person—it was Du San. Judging by the blurry silhouette in the room, it was surely him!
No amount of blood on a knife could produce such a strong stench of blood; there must be something else inside the backpack.
Cheng Cha suddenly remembered the task for the night. Hu Yanming was the last to perform it.
Du San wielded the bloodied cleaver a few times around the screen, then flipped it over and used its broad back to knock above, below, and to the sides of the screen. Following a gesture of his hand, the other two retreated, turned around, and deliberately avoided looking at the screen.
Then, Du San dramatically placed the cleaver on the ground, blade facing the screen, and reached into his backpack again. Quickly, he took out a blood-soaked mask and put it on his head.
Cheng Cha’s pupils constricted involuntarily; he recognized the mask—it was the same one they wore on their missions that night.
After putting on the mask, Du San took out a pair of clean fur gloves. Then, with his arms exerting strength, he moved the entire screen aside, revealing the hidden black wardrobe behind it.
The wardrobe was over one person tall, entirely black, with a patchy surface that eerily resembled an old coffin dug out of a grave.
