Chapter 108: Shadows of Ghost Stories at Night.

The corpse of Nüchou, as the name suggests, is a corpse named Nüchou.

The *Classic of Mountains and Seas, Western Regions* records it as follows: "It is born and killed by being roasted for ten days. It is to the north of the male. It covers its face with its right hand. The ten suns reside above, and the ugly woman resides atop the mountain."

This means that this is the corpse of a woman who died from being scorched by ten suns in the sky.

The Classic of the Great Wilderness, West Section, also says that Nüchou wore a blue dress and covered her face with her sleeve. She was a shaman who failed to pray for rain.

Taken together, it appears to be the body of someone who died tragically in a drought. The figure is likely dressed in blue, with his right hand covering his face.

Whether the demon god lurking here is the legendary Nüchou remains unknown. Let's assume it is, and if so, how should we deal with it? The group started chatting idly about what skills Nüchou might have, gradually straying from the original topic.

A night wind picked up outside the tent, rustling all around. The frame was fairly sturdy, but the chandelier above occasionally swayed. Xia Zhu felt as if they were ghosts trapped inside paper lanterns, their spirits swaying with the candlelight.

A cold night, a mournful wind, a person dreaming under the lamp.

Feng Feng felt that it would be a waste not to tell a few scary stories in this atmosphere! So he urged everyone to turn off the overhead lights and turn on their phone flashlights, placing them upside down on the ground in the center, illuminating only a faint beam of light.

“One person tells one story! I’ll go first!” Feng Feng brought her face close to the light source, the pale light creating two contrasting colors on her face, and began to tell her story.

"There was a girl who had just rented a room in an old apartment building. On her first day there, she discovered a small hole in the wall of her bedroom."

"She leaned closer to try and see what was on the other side of the hole, but she couldn't see anything except a patch of red. The girl didn't pay any attention to it and didn't think about blocking the hole."

"Then one day, she ran into her neighbor who lived next door in the hallway. He was a man, and he greeted her politely. The two of them went up the elevator together."

"There's a mirror in the elevator, so the girl secretly glanced at the man through it and noticed that his eyes seemed to have a problem—they were red—but she didn't pay much attention to it and quickly forgot about the little incident."

"One night, when the girl was getting ready to go to sleep, she suddenly heard some noise coming from the cave. She remembered that there seemed to be a man living next door, so she decided to get up and take another look at the cave."

"Guess what? You still can't see anything, just a sea of ​​red." The girl found it strange. She thought to herself, "Something's not right. The man next door has red eyes too, like he has some kind of illness."

"It turns out that ever since the day she moved in, that red-eyed man had been spying on her through this hole. So every time she looked through the hole, she was actually looking into that man's eyes."

Feng Feng deliberately dragged out the story, but found that no one seemed to react much. Feng Mian shrugged, "I heard this story when I was a kid, it's nothing new. It would be more interesting to add a part where a girl sticks her finger in and blinds the peeping tom."

"Huh? Then you tell one!" Feng Feng was unconvinced and made Feng Mian tell one. He thought for a moment and told a story about clapping with the back of your hand. The air around them did indeed feel much lighter. Xia Zhu wasn't afraid of these things. She had lived in the village since she was a child. Every summer night, the adults would gather in the courtyard to chat, and occasionally they would tell ghost stories or other strange tales to cool off. In short, even demons and gods existed in this world, so ghosts weren't that strange.

However, she keenly noticed that Ying Huo was somewhat depressed, and when it was his turn to speak, he refused to say a word.

Ying Ya stammered out a bizarre version of the story of the crow drinking water, so now only Ji Yinxiu and Xia Zhu are left to share, besides Ying Huo.

Ji Yinxiu sat upright, looking nothing like someone who would tell ghost stories. Feng Feng suggested they stop, but Ji Yinxiu gestured with his hand and said somewhat embarrassedly, "I do have a story."

"It is said that a couple had a kitten. Because they had trouble sleeping, they would usually keep the kitten outside the bedroom door at night. The kitten was usually very well-behaved and would only meow occasionally. But one night, it started howling outside the door, and you could even hear some tinkling sounds."

"The noise woke up the couple. The husband said that maybe the kitten brought the toy to the door, which it did before. But when he turned his head, he found his wife lying on the headboard with a loving and infatuated look in her eyes. She said that maybe someone was teasing the cat."

After Ji Yinxiu finished speaking, she noticed that no one was talking, and she smiled shyly.

"Wow, can you stop spouting nonsense with that innocent-looking face?!" Feng Feng thought the story didn't sound like much at first glance, but it seemed much stranger coming from Ji Yinxiu's mouth.

Someone like him shouldn't be so detached from worldly affairs. Shouldn't he at least say something philosophical and profound? Ji Yinxiu is always so quiet; I thought he was trying to come up with some brilliant quote.

Feng Feng was quite shocked, but she didn't know that Ji Yinxiu not only lived a life of ease, but even made his own food. Although he had no other hobbies, when he didn't have homework, he would take off his Xuanyuan Sword and wander around the surrounding counties. He especially liked to stand on the street and watch children play those video games that cost one coin per turn. He also liked to buy some old horror story books from street stalls and squat there to read them for a whole day.

He was a thoroughly old-fashioned young man.

"Boring," Xia Zhu heard Ying Huo weakly utter from the shadows.

So she cleared her throat and said, "Then I'll tell you one." Then she casually moved the light on the ground a little.

"There was a group of very close friends who made plans to go camping and hiking on a mountain in the suburbs, intending to spend the night on the summit. The trip went smoothly, and they successfully climbed to the top, set up their tents, and prepared to spend the night there."

"That night, it was dark and windy with no stars. The group had originally come to admire the night sky, but now they could only return to their tents in disappointment."

"Since the night is long, someone suggested that we tell ghost stories instead."

"Then, someone in the group spoke first, and he talked about the customs of his hometown. It is easy to not be able to distinguish between humans and ghosts when going out on the night of the Ghost Festival. If you are not careful, you will attract some unclean things. So the locals came up with a way to distinguish ghosts."

"Because the dead don't remember their own names."

"So if you encounter an unidentified creature, just ask it what its name is."

"This story is just a custom, nothing special. It's neither scary nor original. Afterwards, a few people shared some of their past experiences. Seeing that it was getting late, everyone was too tired to stay awake any longer and went to sleep."

"The next day they returned along the same route, boarded a pre-booked six-seater bus at the foot of the mountain and returned to the city, and asked one of them to develop the photos from their trip."

"When this person was organizing photos in the darkroom, he discovered that there was a seventh person in all those happy group photos."

"This seventh person always stands at the very edge from left to right. The person developing the photos can name all the friends, but can't remember the seventh person's name no matter what."

Suddenly, a red light flashed in the room, and the person slowly looked up at the mirror in the corner.

"Ah, so he was the seventh person."

Xia Zhu finished telling the story expressionlessly, and there was complete silence around her. Suddenly, she clapped her hands and pointed into the shadows between Feng Feng and Ying Ya, "Alright, I'm done. It's her turn."

"Her?" Feng Feng wanted to ask what you were talking about, but suddenly his body stiffened, a cold wind blew behind him, he exchanged a glance with Ying Ya beside him, and slowly looked behind him.

A disheveled figure appeared on the dark red tent, trembling with the light.

Before she could catch her breath, she heard a scream from the other side.

Startled, she stood up, nearly throwing the rattan cane. Looking closer, she saw Ying Huo, her face deathly pale, hanging precariously from Xia Zhu's neck like a lost soul, a mere ornament. She was about to unleash a torrent of curses when she realized something was wrong.

Xia Zhu was dragged about by the weight of this coward, and the shadow on the tent swayed from side to side, becoming noticeably more defined than before. "Alright, alright." Feng Feng plopped back down in his seat, staring at her resentfully, "I only believed you because you seemed like an honest person, but you're actually a little liar."

"Liar...liar?" Ying Huo stammered, only realizing he'd been tricked by Xia Zhu when he saw the others staring at him with half-smiles. He immediately jumped back as if his hair was standing on end, scrambling to a corner, pointing an angry finger at Xia Zhu's nose, "You, you actually lied to me?"

Xia Zhu really didn't expect that this person, who usually acted so arrogantly, would be so afraid of ghosts. If he were to get seriously injured from being frightened, it would be something she really didn't want.

"I'm sorry," she said, believing it to be an extremely sincere apology.

Ying Huo vowed never to speak to Xia Zhu again, at least not tonight.

The wind outside seemed to have stopped. It was getting late, so everyone lay down fully clothed and agreed to take turns keeping watch, each person keeping watch for two hours, starting with Ji Yinxiu and ending with Ying Huo.

With someone awake, those who had fallen asleep felt much more at ease. Xia Zhu squeezed against the edge of the tent, wrapped her coat tightly around herself, and curled up on her side. A dim yellow lamp was left on in the tent, providing insufficient illumination, but the atmosphere was warm and cozy.

She carefully recalled Ying Huo's face, which had been terrified into a groveling expression, and quickly drifted off into a deep sleep, feeling content.

In a daze, people around her got up and lay down. Because it was almost her turn to keep watch, she didn't sleep very well in the second half of the night.

Xia Zhu likes to curl up in a ball when she sleeps. When she lies down, she is pressed tightly against the tent, so in her half-awake state, she can always hear the sound of her own breathing hitting the nylon fabric.

She subconsciously frowned, wanting to turn over and change direction, when suddenly, a white light flashed through her chaotic consciousness, like lightning striking her nerves, instantly bringing her back to her senses.

She held her breath, but could still hear the faint sound.

A rustling sound, like something furry slowly crawling across the surface of the tent, made one's teeth ache and instantly raised goosebumps on the skin, a chill rising from the back of the neck.

Xia Zhu slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was dim. Although there was a lamp on, it wasn't enough to cast her shadow on the tent.

What exactly is this shadowy thing facing her, nose to nose, right now?

She tried to slow her breathing, pretending to still be asleep, and turned her head slightly, only to find that the shadow moved after a few seconds, slowly adjusting itself to the same posture as Xia Zhu.

Therefore, this means that at this moment, a humanoid monster is mimicking her sleeping posture, pressed tightly against the outside of the tent.

It even made a very subtle rustling sound, like breathing, trying to be in sync with her in every way.

Xia Zhu stared intently at the shadow, unsure who was on night watch or if they had noticed anything amiss. She dared not make any rash moves and could only quietly place her hand on the small sword at her waist.

Suddenly, someone next to me seemed to be murmuring in their sleep, saying something softly before turning over.

The shadow outside the tent trembled as if startled, its outline undulating like waves before vanishing completely in the next second.

"Who!" Xia Zhu immediately stood up and was about to give chase.