23 Chapter 23 (Two in One)
◎Why do I have neck wrinkles at such a young age?◎
"What's a Flying Head Barbarian? The one from martial arts novels where they steal heads, or the one from Southeast Asian legends where heads can fly?"
"The one in martial arts novels is called the Flying Head Dagger! The one in Southeast Asia is called the Flying Head Dagger, and it will send your internal organs flying out along with it."
"Ugh... it's bloody and disgusting. So what does Feitouman have to do with moving?"
Amidst the clamor of discussion, An Qi didn't wait for everyone to quiet down before speaking out, "It's said that if someone hits a flying head barbarian, they'll look fine during the day, but at night, when they fall asleep, their head will fly off on its own."
"The girl was preparing for the postgraduate entrance exam, studying late every day and falling asleep as soon as she lay down. But one night, she opened her eyes and found something strange in the room."
Her voice was deliberately lowered, with a slight tremor, and her soft breath made people feel creepy.
"The night light went out at some point, and the room was pitch black. The bed was still there, and the books she had thrown around before going to bed were still in their place, but she always felt something was wrong and couldn't fall asleep.
A gust of wind blew from above my head, cooling my scalp to the soles of my feet.
She closed the door before going to bed, but now, the door is ajar!
The room was silent; the girl could only hear her own heartbeat. After waiting for a moment, and hearing no other sound, she cautiously squinted her eyes and lifted them to look upwards.
She could make out the vague outline of the door beside the bed, but outside the slightly ajar door, in the darkness, as if it were an illusion, she felt a pair of eyes staring at her from higher up.
"Silent, cold, heavy, staring at her. There must be something outside the door!
The girl couldn't stand it anymore, so she jumped up and grabbed the door handle, trying to close the door gently and quickly, pretending that nothing had happened... However, the door got stuck halfway through.
In the darkness, she didn't know what was outside. Maybe it was her parents getting up to sleep, maybe some bad guy, maybe even the vacuum cleaner wandering around the house. She didn't dare to ask. She regretted getting up, but now she could only shut the door with all her strength.
She pushed with all her might, putting her entire body weight on it, and pushed for a long time, but the door didn't budge at all.
Anqi's mysteriously raised palm cast a shadow, and under the warm yellow light, the shadow seemed to be wriggling very slowly, as if some monster was lurking.
The voice of the narrator became softer and softer, and the others couldn't help but breathe softer and concentrate their attention to hear what was said clearly.
"There was no questioning outside the door, no one pushed it open, it was as if no one was there at all. There was only the cold gaze hanging over her head, getting closer and closer. She was almost out of strength..."
Everyone at the table was listening to the story intently and didn't notice that Anqi's face was getting paler and paler. In the blink of an eye, the blood color faded and was covered with a layer of death.
"The girl was terrified. She looked up and tried to see clearly what was outside the gap, which was less than the thickness of a finger."
A thin red line quietly appeared on Anqi's neck, as if it was just a wrinkle on the skin, but the color became darker and thicker.
It was like a crack opened up between the head and neck.
"She saw it." An Qi took a sharp breath, as if her throat was strangled. "It's stuck in the crack of the door--"
"It's...it's a head!"
Lin Yu shuddered with fright, causing his chair to tilt back. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a bulging ball in the shadow under the table.
There was a faint glow inside the sphere, like... a head staring at them?!
Lin Yu grabbed her roommate's clothes and before she screamed, she saw clearly that it was the store's sweeping and mopping robot, which moved silently under the table.
It was probably blocked by everyone's feet, so it tilted up in a funny way and spun around trying to get out from under the table.
It turns out I was seeing things wrong...
Lin Yu relaxed a little.
No one seemed to notice her fear and sat quietly at the table as the story continued.
“It’s Mom’s head!
There was no neck, no body, and the head was pulled out abruptly, flew up into the air, and stuck sideways in the gap between the door frame and the door!
"Her face was as pale as a corpse painted with lime. One eye, just one eye! Staring at me through the crack in the door without blinking!"
The black hair squirming under the shell swelled up like breathing, forming an arc.
A thin red gap appeared between the hair, like the cross section of a neck growing out from under the black hair.
The pale face seemed to be contagious. One by one, then two by two, the faces of the students sitting at the table gradually began to turn pale and stiff, like the heads of corpses floating out of the door at night in the story.
Yet, their arms were still picking up food, and their fingertips were still red and warm.
"She fainted from fright. The next day, her mother smiled and called her to get up. Her head was still on her neck, and her neck hadn't gotten any longer. It was still the same as usual. I thought it was just a dream.
At night, she refused to go to bed and dragged her mother to watch a movie. Late at night, her mother fell asleep silently. But her eyes were open and she asked her a question.
Angel raised two fingers and pointed at her eyes, then turned around and pointed at everyone in front of her, as if there really was a pair of eyes staring at them.
Her skin was pale, as if covered with lime, and the red cracked skin on her neck began to tense unnaturally, making a clicking sound as her joints rubbed against each other.
The voice was so low it was almost impossible to tell whether it came from the cracked neck or from bloodless lips. It was faint and sharp, suddenly filling the entire hall.
"Have you...seen my head?"
"Ah——!" The short scream stopped abruptly, and Lin Yu widened his eyes in horror.
The moment he heard it, a chill crept up his shoulders and gripped his throat, making him unable to move.
She felt as if she were suffocating. No, not suffocating, it was... her head was rising, pulling up, her head was about to fly out.
Did I really encounter a ghost this time?!
Ye Ping'an was awakened by the scream while dozing off, and looked up in surprise.
Opening a business is considered a public place, so why is it called a gathering?
A sweeping and mopping robot was stuck crookedly on the chair leg of the last table of customers, and at first glance it looked like a fallen hat.
The light made the students look a little strange. There was a red line on Anqi's neck that looked like an earthworm. The others were in a daze, some covering their necks, some were in a daze, and some were screaming with their mouths open.
Why are you so young and already getting neck wrinkles? They're just normal wrinkles for everyone, so why are you so scared?
The warm yellow light seemed to regain its temperature, and the coldness suddenly melted away. Lin Yu jumped up in a second and held down his roommate.
"Angie! Are you okay?!"
"Hmm?" An Qi's cheeks were squeezed together as she looked back at her blankly.
The lines on Anqi's neck are still there, but when the light shines on it, it is clearly the "collar" neck lines caused by excessive flesh.
Lin Yu looked left and right, but didn't find any clues on his roommate's face.
It seemed that the cold and suffocating moment just now was just because she was too sensitive and thought too much.
The students came to their senses and burst into laughter.
"Hahahaha! No way, Ayu is too timid. You were scared just by telling a ghost story?"
"At first I thought there really was a girl. But the more I listened, the more it seemed off. It's a hodgepodge of horror stories, a remake of the Slit-Mouthed Woman and the Flying Head Barbarian. It's so corny. If you keep making it up like this, Xia Xia will have to come up with a hundred and eight jokes when she gets her part-time job back."
"I didn't expect Angie to have this talent. If we can't find a job, we can apply for a position at a radio station, specializing in telling horror stories!"
"What's so tacky about it? This story has been going viral in my hometown lately! And it's a story Xia Xia has heard before, so I'm not lying to you."
An Qi protested dissatisfiedly, and Lin Yu looked around in shock.
The students were laughing and joking, no different from usual.
Lin Yu turned on his phone with trembling hands, and Anqi's face was reflected in the front camera.
There was a winding line on her neck, and she was smiling, but her eyes were vague and confused, as if she couldn't focus and couldn't see clearly what was in front of her.
The more he looked, the weirder it seemed to Lin Yu.
Lin Yu pointed at the screen anxiously, "Look at your neck!"
"Have I gained weight again? It's definitely the camera's fault!" An Qi pinched her double chin awkwardly. "Did I really scare you? I'm sorry."
An Qi didn't seem to notice the oddity in the camera. She looked at the time and said in surprise, "Why is it already this late to tell a story? Oh no, hurry up, the dormitory is about to close!"
The students talked about leaving, but no one stood up. They kept smiling, silently turning their heads to stare at Lin Yu, as if they were looking at someone different.
An Qi held her roommate's hand and looked at her without blinking. Lin Yu felt as if her wrist was clamped by ice and she couldn't break free.
"you……"
The robot mop hidden under the table released strands of hair, attempting to wrap around Anqi's ankles. The lines on her neck grew brighter, accentuating her pale complexion. As she spoke, another sharp voice seemed to be desperately trying to force its way out.
"See--"
clang.
A porcelain bowl fell on the table, and the voice that was asking the fatal question suddenly stopped.
Ye Pingan patted the two men on the shoulders and said, "Young people should pay attention to their health. Look, your voice is hoarse. Drink some soup."
"Gulp." An Qi subconsciously held the bowl and took a few sips. "It tastes good!"
After finishing the drink, she reluctantly raised her head from the steaming hot bowl of soup and looked around as if she had just woken up from a dream. "What happened just now?"
The classmates were even more confused than she was. They all stood up and packed their things. "What's wrong? Didn't you say you were going home after eating?"
Someone laughed out loud. "No way, Anqi, you were scared too? Oh, it's just a story, don't take it seriously. If there really were ghosts, according to the rules of novels, the place where ghost stories are told would also become haunted! Boss, don't you think so?"
"Feudal superstition is unacceptable. How can there be ghosts?" Ye Ping'an shook his head and kicked the sweeping and mopping robot away to avoid blocking the guests' way.
"Tsk tsk, graduation season is busy, right? Look at your pale complexions and deep neck wrinkles. It's obvious you've been staying up too late and haven't taken care of yourself. Young people should pay attention to their health. Beauty and skin care soup, the medicinal food series is 99 per portion!"
"Puff! Cough cough cough..."
An Qi almost choked to death. "Isn't this bowl of lotus seed soup just missing red beans compared to red bean paste?! 99, boss, why don't you go grab it!!!"
"You can't say that. The most expensive thing is craftsmanship. Haven't you heard of it?"
Ye Pingan said confidently, "Look, is your skin better now?"
Lin Yu looked at his roommate whose face had turned pale, and without hesitation, he immediately scanned the code to pay.
An Qi: ...???
Listening to the payment announcement, Ye Pingan waved enthusiastically, "Would you like to have one too?"
"No, no." An Qi dragged her roommate out quickly. "Why is the boss still ripping off regular customers?! And you're so stupid as to let her rip you off. You have so much money you don't know where to spend it?"
"But you're definitely feeling better now, so consider it a thank you to the boss." Lin Yu whispered, "How about you stay home during your break this week? Invite Xia Xia and the others, and we'll have another meal together."
There was something wrong with her roommate when she told that story, and the place where the story was circulated really made her uneasy.
"Two? Don't we only have Xia Xia as our roommate?"
An Qi shook her head. "Have you forgotten that the largest supermarket in University Town is opening this weekend? There's been a lot of demand for rentals there lately, and Xia Xia is there too. We might as well go over and take a look."
Lin Yu didn't hear anything An Qi said afterwards.
There was only one question echoing in her mind: Their dormitory was for four people, so why were there only three people living there?
Back in the dorm, there were indeed four beds with desks underneath. But the desk on bed number three was covered in dust. The mosquito net and the bedding underneath were covered in a layer of dustproof plastic film, and there was a faint stale smell. I couldn't tell how long it hadn't been cleaned.
There were no names in the class group that she didn't remember, and no extra people on the social software.
An Qi watched her walk around, feeling completely baffled. "This was the case when we moved into our new dorms in our senior year. It must have been left behind by one of the senior students. The dorm manager never took care of it, and we didn't have time to collect it, so we just left it there."
is that so?
Lin Yu slowly turned around and looked at Xia Zihan's bed opposite him.
Xia Zihan had been working outside for a few days and had not returned to the dormitory, so a thin layer of dust had accumulated on her desk.
"Yawn...I'm so sleepy." Anqi stretched, climbed onto the bed and lay down.
Lin Yu looked at her roommate's back. The red line on her neck had disappeared, and she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
-
In a corner of University Town, a massive supermarket, sprawling across a vast area, had been long advertised for its impending opening. However, the mall itself was remarkably quiet, and even the tall commercial and residential apartments behind it seemed deserted.
A row of black and red balloons floated under the glass dome window on the top floor of the shopping mall, drifting along the curve of the glass, making slight popping sounds from time to time.
Figures walked slowly in the corridor, without a sound of footsteps.
The flowers on the originally planned sky garden terrace outside the dome window have not been fully transplanted yet, and the railings are haphazardly set up. It is obvious that the project is not completed yet, and the people have disappeared.
The work should have been rushed to wrap up, but now there were only a few hooded figures on the terrace. From their high vantage point, they could see the entire mall.
A similarly hooded corpse lay on the ground, its face pale and with a ring of plastic shards wedged around its lips, as if a loudspeaker had exploded in its face while it was speaking.
His body had begun to rot in the early summer weather, and it was obvious that he had been dead for more than a day.
Someone cursed under their breath, "Damn that Investigation Bureau's nose is too sharp... The beast we just sent to the meeting, and they've already raided the reservoir after just a few days! The E-level [Bewitching Microphone] was originally designed to be placed on the beast, so it could later control the entire group. We finally managed to connect to the guy who last came into contact with the beast, but after just a few words, it exploded before we could even capture him. It's truly bizarre."
"E-class is nothing. The D-class [Peeping Eye] we launched a few days ago was also devoured and blown up without leaving any body behind. I've never heard of [Ghost Call] being able to track its sub-body back to its original form before it revived, right?"
"This isn't normal! It's impossible! By swallowing up weird things one after another, isn't that old woman afraid of accelerated resurgence or the weird things mutating and eating her?! The weird things sent to the meeting are few and far between. Hu's nose is incredibly sharp. Maybe she has the hearse. We need to quickly summon the Hundred Eyes."
Amidst the complaints, there was an unbelievable feeling of hitting a wall.
Someone else greedily sketched the traces of debris from the corpse. "[Ghost Call] hasn't even revived yet, but it's already so powerful. It should have led our true spirits even further... It's a shame to leave it in the hands of the hyenas."
The hooded figure in the middle sighed, "Yes, if [Hearse] and [Frustration] hadn't disappeared, there wouldn't have been any need to revive [Hundred Eyes] so hastily. It's a shame that the B-rank that once graced the inscription can now only revive the ghostly den and a tiny bit of its power."
After complaining, the others looked at the black fog filling the mall under the glass and sneered.
"What are you afraid of? Let the [Beauty Head] be devoured by the divine fragments. They will bring back more good news for the resurrecting [Hundred Eyes]. When the ghost den revives and [Ghost Call] comes in, it will also return to the ranks of true spirits."
"This is the president's trust in us! The [Hundred Eyes] are beginning to revive, and it's only a matter of time before Jiang City returns to the embrace of the True Spirit. What does it matter if we're strong or weak at the beginning? Look, the ghost den has been sealed off immediately, and the Investigation Bureau hasn't even reacted yet. This mission will be over soon."
As he was speaking, the hooded man who had been sitting in the corner holding a head in his hands suddenly shuddered.
The head, covered by long hair, revealed a single red lip, identical to the woman in the hearse. But now its eye sockets were bulging, as if the heaviest part of the head had become its eyes.
As he trembled, his covered eyeballs opened, and strands of black hair shot out like snakes.
Phew!
Before the black hair could fully emerge, it seemed as if its tail was stepped on from behind and disappeared from its eye sockets with a whoosh.
The eyeball suddenly exploded into pieces, and the viscous liquid splashed onto the ground, raising wisps of black mist.
The hooded figure holding it fell stiffly, and the woman's head, held in its arms, split open in the middle. Its once lifelike skin turned pale and decayed in the blink of an eye, leaving only a fragment of skull.
"What's going on?! Was that [Frustration] just now? Did it sense the presence of [Hundred Eyes] and successfully use the opportunity to revive? No, it's gone back again. Has it become a ghost of the Investigation Bureau?"
The hooded men who were excitedly discussing the completion of the mission quickly made way for a large distance, away from the location where only skeletons were left. Exclamations arose everywhere, and they exchanged glances with each other in confusion.
"[Beauty's Head]...disappeared. No, it was devoured. It was discovered."
The hooded figure in the lead spoke faster, strode out, and urged impatiently, "The Bureau of Investigation will be here soon. Follow me, into the ghost den, drive out those little rats, and speed up the ghost den's expansion!"
After taking a few steps, he suddenly turned around and stared at his subordinates who were quietly slowing down their pace behind him. "My brothers and sisters, what are you waiting for? The rules of the Hundred Eyes have been distributed before the operation. We have just started the resurgence. As long as we don't violate any taboos, after the sacrifice, we can all return to the guild to receive the gods' rewards."
His seductive tone turned cold, "Those who are cowardly and incompetent are not qualified to become true spirits. Does anyone want to be a sacrifice?"
A group of people walked down from the rooftop one after another.
In front of Gate No. 1 of the shopping mall, a blower blew up a huge balloon arch, and rows of flower baskets led directly to the gate.
The inflatable cartoon doll mascot swayed in the wind, sometimes bending its waist, sometimes bending its hands, and sometimes folding its head to its chest, as if bending down to invite people in.
"Welcome~"
The shopping mall behind it is brightly lit, with exquisite clothes and jewelry scattered in the windows. Promotional advertisements for internet celebrity stores have been printed on parking signs, and the facade is covered with posters of trendy stars and two-dimensional elements.
Following the puppet's invitation, the entire mall inexplicably attracted people's attention. Regardless of whether they wanted to buy anything or not, they walked towards the door unconsciously.
The group disappeared in front of Gate No. 1 of the mall.
The bright lights behind the glass door obscured their figures, and the vague shadows disappeared, as if they had never existed at all.
Gradually, more and more balloons floated up to the dome window.
Some balloons floated and flew, floating through the corridors, into the elevators, up to the tall buildings, and flashed past behind the window glass.
Xia Zihan forced himself to stay awake and sat in the office of the apartment building, with mountains of apartment occupancy agreements and lease contracts piled up on both sides.
She flipped through the documents at hand anxiously. "Where did you say you would send someone to help sort out the apartment information? Xingkui Group is a huge company, why am I the only intern busy here?"
"It's too remote. The restaurants in the mall aren't open yet, and there's no takeout. If it weren't for the double pay, I would have left long ago! I really miss Boss Ye's food QAQ"
Xia Zihan muttered and vaguely smelled a strange fragrance.
"It stinks, like something rotten, but it also smells a bit fragrant? Is it durian or pig intestines?"
After working overtime for a few days and eating the instant noodles and bread stocked up by the office, Xia Zihan now wants to eat everything.
Holding his greedy stomach, Xia Zihan pushed the door open and went out. "The documents will be proofread and sorted soon anyway, so I'll go out and find something to eat."
There were only a few people living in the apartment. As she walked in the corridor, the echo of her empty footsteps made her feel uneasy and she quickened her pace.
The bottom floor of the commercial and residential building is connected to the upper floor of the shopping mall, separated only by a gate for a safety passage.
From a distance, Xia Zihan could see the light from the headlights in the corridor ahead shining through the crack in the door, as well as the shadows cast by groups of floating balloons.
It is said that the dome is specially designed to gather sunlight and reflect internal lights, making the entire mall appear bright and comfortable to the maximum extent.
The lights in the corridor are quite bright, but aren't there too many balloons flying onto the glass dome?
Not only do they block the light, but the balloons, some of which are black and some are red, don't look good either.
Xia Zihan complained and was about to push open the door to the emergency passage when his sight suddenly froze.
In the corridor across from the movie theater, the popcorn machine was already humming, flashing a delicious yellow light. Employees were carrying posters and roll-ups, while others were cleaning with rags.
The colored lights in the theater illuminated their bare necks, the bright red cut surfaces revealing the stumps of bone.
They clearly have no heads, yet they continue to work stiffly, as if they were just simulated robots with a missing part.
…Where are their heads?
Xia Zihan felt cold all over, as if stuck. He raised his head stiffly, inch by inch, and looked at the balloon floating in the glass dome again.
She saw a familiar face at a glance, the face of her roommate whom she hadn't seen for half a month.
Its eyes were closed and its face was pale, as if it was floating in the sky in a deep sleep.
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