Chapter 4, "The Junior Police Officer": This isn't a funeral, it's a celebration. ...
The alley was pitch black, and it was impossible to tell whether a ghost was following them.
"Huff... Hah... Huff... Dongzi! Where are you!" This is the protagonist who is anxiously looking for help. You can hear his footsteps running wildly in the dark alley. A dozen seconds later, the scene shows the agile figure of a police officer running away.
As I recall, the bicycle was parked not far away...
Jane Dieda's gaze searched for a way out from left to right, but he gradually became lost in the dark alley. Then he realized something and thought to himself, "Could it be that the 'stain' misled me and made me take the wrong path? Is this what they call 'being trapped in a maze'?"
Even though Jian Dieda has watched countless films in real life, he is nearing his end, because those three words are a classic trope in Chinese ghost movies, forever capable of evoking the deepest fears in people's hearts.
Speaking of this, he also recalled why he used to stay up all night all year round. Back then, he suffered from a mental illness and was unable to generate emotions for many years. His computer was filled with all kinds of horror movies that would stimulate his hormones. Among them, Thai dramas were all about witchcraft and raising Kuman Thong, Taiwanese dramas were mostly about exorcism incidents in villages in Taichung City, Hong Kong dramas were always about the Causeway Bay suicide case, and Japanese dramas were either classic white-clothed female ghosts or a hundred ghosts parade at night.
Only in China, it always ends up with no ghosts left.
That's why he couldn't help but make a sarcastic remark that day.
Looking back now, I believe it.
He actually believes that there are ghosts in our domestic ghost movies now; tonight has already opened his eyes.
Once Jane Dieda felt a sense of awe, the moonlight on a July night made the soles of his feet feel cold, and his exposed skin broke out in a dense layer of goosebumps.
Life is always paramount. In this world, 'Jenda' is a cripple; even the slightest thing can make his hands tremble like a leaf.
Without teammates, he'll really die a horrible death.
At this critical moment, he desperately wanted to call for the system; he needed teammates from the same place to help him. But then he remembered that this was a horror-themed crime-solving game, and the system had no obligation to save his life…
Jane's rationality led him to decide to find a solution on his own, and he continued running.
"Woof woof!" A dog barked, startling him as he stealthily moved through the dead of night.
Jane turned her head to look.
There wasn't even a cockroach in front of me, let alone a dog.
My shoulders feel really heavy for some reason after the dog barks.
The worst part is that a scene that could kill anyone with trypophobia in the world on the spot has occurred!
On the wall behind me, there was originally one 'stain', then four 'stains', and now more than thirty 'stains' have appeared out of nowhere.
The identical 'stains' had human legs and heads, and they formed a circle on the wall, hand in hand, silently approaching him. If someone were timid, they might run into Jian Dieda's bad luck and die of fright in the dungeon.
What they are, Jian Dieda really doesn't understand.
Looking at the footage alone, the young police officer's expression was almost like that of a chicken that had been plucked and was being slaughtered by the neck.
He was so focused on avoiding the stains that he didn't realize a bigger crisis was approaching. But off-screen, you could see the light shining on him from the alleyway where the lights had first come on, and a pink light enveloped Jane Dieda's forehead.
Behind him, the fox's tail swayed back and forth on his shoulder.
The cat-faced old lady was still watching the live stream. Just now, she recognized at a glance that this was a sign that an ordinary person was about to "take action," that is, to be possessed by a spirit and turned into a puppet. It looked like there was more than one immortal fox clinging to Jian Dieda's body.
The cat-faced old woman trembled and exclaimed in astonishment, "Is it really a nine-tailed fox spirit? This old woman, a mere walking corpse, can't afford to offend it! The fox family is best at possessing people, changing their fortune, and turning them into beauties. In ancient times, there was Tushan, the wife of Yu the Great, and in the Shang Dynasty, there was Su Daji from Xuanyuan Tomb. How come I can't tell what this fox spirit in the world looks like!"
Things were clearly getting strange.
The young police officer who wasn't eliminated on the first night was not only framed and forced into a haunted alley, but also chased by a 'stain'. Now, the cat-faced old lady is convinced that he's going to be eaten by a supernatural being called a 'household spirit'. His fate is truly miserable.
The cat-faced old lady clicked her tongue, looked at the young policeman's profile picture, and sent a private message with the profile picture hidden: "Kid, why don't you stop running? You probably can't escape."
To her surprise, Jian Dieda also messaged her. Not only that, he guessed the old woman's identity: "The cat-faced old lady?"
The cat-faced old lady had lost her bearings; she didn't know how to talk to people: "..."
Since the person opposite him was an elder, Jian Dieda couldn't very well ask if they wanted a cigarette. He went straight to the point and asked, "Has your discerning eye already spotted the boss of this dimension?"
That's not good at all.
“How about we exchange story cards for two worlds?” Jane said, clearly betting on the addition of a remote teammate. “If I survive tonight and get the first world’s completion card, we’ll become interdimensional friends. I’ll also recruit another teammate, but I don’t need you to help me openly. Our deal will be kept secret.”
Are you sure we can close the deal?
The old woman with the cat face asked if she had any unused ghost props, but since they weren't familiar with each other, it wasn't convenient to sell them easily for the time being.
Jian Dieda took a breath and said, "Yes, you can watch over it. Give me some time. By the way, I'll deal with the ones behind me first, and then I'll deal with the Fox Immortal."
Cat-faced old lady: "!"
What?! The young police officer knew everything himself? This kid really has some nerve...
Actually, that's not the case. When Jian Dieda dared to propose the deal, he used the second reward prop: a clapperboard from a ghost movie.
The old lady across from her thought for a moment, then immediately decided to show her appreciation and gave her a small favor.
“Kid, if you have any Taoist talismans or Guanyin mantras to deal with the ‘karma’ on the wall, I can teach you a trick.”
"Tell me about it." Of course, Jian Dieda didn't have these profound religious artifacts; he only had a ridiculous all-nighter system that he could use as a cheat tool.
The cat-faced old woman whispered, "Those 'stains' only look like people, but they don't have faces, right? If you add 'eyes' and paint faces on them, once they have features, they'll have shape and can be physically killed."
I see!
Jian Dieda was exhausted from running, so he conjured up the clapperboard and tapped it. The system then activated:
[Current story progress 4%. A chase is taking place in Hawthorn Alley tonight. You can use the clapperboard item to pause the ghost chase for 30 seconds to further collect testimony.]
"Stains" are subject to rules.
They remained motionless within the wall.
Panting, Jian Dieda thought to himself that luckily he was a master of blackboard newspapers at work. He quickly stepped forward, took out a piece of chalk from his pocket, and in no time at all drew noses, eyes, and mouths on the 'stains,' making them all children's faces.
Something terrifying happened.
The children's drawings on the wall began to move their drawn eyes from side to side.
Hehe. A group of children's faces smiled happily at Jian Dieda, but their eyes were also fierce, causing Jian Dieda to take a big step back. It was this action that made him hear someone coming from behind him.
The man stood in the fog, maintaining a posture that resembled watching a spectacle. His face was too blurry, but he clearly had legs, which caused Jian Dieda to immediately take out his police identification and investigate the man. "Comrade, what are you doing around here so late at night? I'm a police officer from Honghui Police Station. If you're lost, I can take you out of the alley."
"Damn it, I've wasted so much time, and now I can't leave either. Luckily, I found a family where we can stay overnight."
Dong Dongdong's voice sounded somewhat familiar to him. Jian Dieda walked into the fog and came to his childhood friend's side, only to find that his bicycle had been found and was right behind him.
Dong Dongdong had a towel on the hood, and it seemed he had indeed gone to borrow some car repair tools.
Could it be that he wasn't the one who framed him?
Jian Dieda thought for a moment, then instead of looking him up and down, he opened his mouth and asked, "Did you run into someone?"
Dong Dongdong raised his arm and pointed to the lit area. Jian Dieda recognized the house. His friend said, "Yeah, the people in the alley are very welcoming to us police officers. Are you hungry? They have food, rice porridge and fried dough sticks."
Jane replied, "Fried dough sticks? I'll eat them."
He wondered to himself, "Is that Dongzi's face?" And indeed, it really was him.
However, Jane Dieda had no interest in the side plots outside of solving the case, but his brother turned out to have a pair of very charming eyes.
Raising his delicate eyebrows, Dong Dongdong, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, impatiently pointed to his watch and said, "Let's go then. Speaking of which, why didn't you listen to me? What were you doing here at the phone booth? And drawing this on the wall? How old are you?"
Jane then remembered that he only had 30 seconds.
Jian Dieda pulled Dong Dongdong away first, and Dong Dongdong complained, but stayed very close to him.
The tall, strong-willed policeman, through his one arm and his tough demeanor, protected his younger, local police buddy.
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We arrived at the house where two 'memorial' lanterns were hanging outside the door.
The two walked in up the old-fashioned steps used to knock on the door. Dong Dong was still scolding Jian Dieda, saying, "Look at your face. I told you the feng shui here is bad, but you didn't believe me. We've finally reached a safe place..."
"Is this family you found really safe?" Jian Dieda stared at the hole in the door panel that had been used to spy on him.
“I’ve already checked for both of us, and you still don’t believe me? Do you even doubt me?” Even though the two had a good relationship, Dong Dongdong’s answer and actions were perfect, and Jian Dieda didn’t seem to have completely let his guard down.
"Damn it, you really don't believe me?" Dong Dongdong almost got angry. Instead of pushing the door open, he turned around to give his childhood friend a good scolding.
The result was that this one glance allowed Dong Dongdong to see what Jian Dieda looked like when something strange had approached him. In the thick, bizarre night, he was wearing a traditional, conservative 1990s police uniform, his neck, buttoned up, was somewhat pale, and a faint blue vein on his skin had an inexplicably erotic feel to it.
Dong Dongdong changed his tone and said, "Hmm, I'm saying, you kid, that neck of yours..."
A blush rose to Jane's pale face. Her eyes darted down, and she slapped her neck, saying, "A mosquito?"
“No,” Dong Dongdong’s nose was itchy. Looking closer, he felt that Jian Dieda’s neck made his eyes linger on it.
Staring for too long, Dong Dongdong's gaze was almost like a sticky red thread, giving one the illusion of being strangled. Jian Dieda asked, "Do you want to eat some duck neck?"
Dong Dongdong did not answer. He felt a normal human impulse to touch a living person and raised a hand to check if the person in his line of sight had a temperature.
Just then, Dong Dongdong stopped, looked behind the two of them, and casually said, "Is that footsteps behind us? I don't see anyone, but it feels like there are a lot of people following us?"
"A lot of people?" Jane immediately asked the cat-faced old lady.
The old lady helped him check and sent him a message: "'Ya' is here, kid, quickly go inside and hide. There's a living person next to you."
"Ye? Is that the scientific name for the 'stains' on the wall in the ghost world?" Jian Dieda was amazed. He and Dong Dongdong immediately went into the yard.
As soon as the courtyard gate was opened, cured sausages, cured meats, and cured fish were revealed under the eaves.
Jian Dieda lifted his foot to cross the threshold.
To his surprise, he felt someone push him inside from behind again. Even more strangely, there was no threshold in front of the house.
Having been tricked by a house with no threshold, Jian Dieda fell to his knees. The policeman knocked off his hat, which rolled over and spontaneously came to the front of the hall, where two clusters of will-o'-the-wisps flickered in the mist.
There, besides a brazier, was an unnamed memorial tablet and a coffin—something he hadn't expected at all before entering. He asked his childhood friend in surprise, "Is this family having a funeral?"
Dong Dongdong shook his head, not helping him up, and softly replied, "No."
It was quite unbelievable that Jian Dieda kept pointing at the coffin-shaped object.
Can you explain why this square, black thing with a flip-open cover is called a BBK flip phone?
Dong Dongdong walked over to him and said, “Look at you, how can you be so ignorant? Just because there’s a coffin, does that mean it’s a funeral? The male head of the household is having a wedding tonight. Haven’t you heard the saying, ‘Those separated by life and death can never meet again, so they silently burn paper money to arrange a ghost marriage’? This is a wedding. Tonight, there will be a wedding ceremony between the fox spirit and his wife.”
Jane was taken aback, then pretended to be hard of hearing and said, "Huh? Who and his mother?"
…………
The main room fell silent.
The cat-faced old woman suddenly said in a voice-over, "That's right, this coffin is probably the one the fox spirit young master used for his wedding!"
A note from the author:
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The ghost groom on the cover is here with his ghost marriage storyline, hahaha!
(I went to a dungeon to do NPC stuff last night! I definitely didn't type until I fell asleep like a piggy bank, sob sob)
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