Chapter 22

Xiao Tangqiu broke out in cold sweat: “….. Fuck! Why the hell does it have Sadako’s abilities!”

Tang Mianmian’s face fell, “Why is it chasing after us?” They had clearly split up several ways to escape, but Fang Lan had only chased after them. Wasn’t her hatred for them a little too extreme?!

Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t help but feel guilty. Although the letter was thrown by Tang Mianmian, he was the one who had opened the box, “….Instead of fucking around, let’s run away first!”

However, it was too late; the evil spirit’s speed was much faster than that of a human being. In the blink of an eye, Fang Lan had already lunged towards them. That swollen and deformed face was so close that Xiao Tangqiu could even smell the thick rotten odor emanating from her. It scared the daylights out of him.

In that instant, he suddenly thought of the mysterious jade pendant and quickly pulled it out. As soon as Fang Lan saw the jade pendant, her expression changed drastically, as if she was extremely terrified of the jade pendant.

Fang Lan stopped moving closer towards Xiao Tangqiu, but didn’t turn around and leave immediately either. Instead, she stood not far away from him, glaring at him with bitterness and hatred in her eyes. She appeared afraid to approach him but also unwilling to leave.

Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t figure out why Fang Lan was so attached to him. He was extremely nervous and wanted to turn around and run, but at the same time, he was afraid of exposing his back to Fang Lan. Obviously, dragging out this stalemate wasn’t the best idea. He could only grip the jade pendant tightly in his hand, slowly retreating away while eyeing Fang Lan’s movements.

Yet, every step backwards he took, Fang Lan would also move a step forwards. She stared at him in contempt, all the while maintaining a set distance from him, obviously, unwilling to let him go.

Xiao Tangqiu’s heart pounded wildly; he was afraid that Fang Lan would pounce on him in the next second and tear him in half. Although Fang Lan hadn’t attack him because of the jade pendant in his hand, this sort of scenario where he had a knife permanently hanging over his head was most terrible. Just like Hitchcock’s ticking time bomb, he was constantly holding his breath.

What should he do?! What could he do?!

Xiao Tangqiu’s brain spun at top speed. All at once, countless images flashed through his mind; the skull at the bottom of the well, the box without the key; the coffin buried behind the house, the boatman without eyes…..

Right then, he linked it all together – the skull at the bottom of the well was missing its eyes because Fang Lan had dug out Zhou Hai’s eyes while he was still alive, and at the beginning the boatman who sent them to Yunjia Village was also missing his eyes……

“Tang Mianmian! Do you still remember what the boatman said to us?!”

“Huh? The boatman?” Tang Mianmian had picked up a sharp stone from the ground when Xiao Tangqiu wasn’t paying attention, and was holding it as a weapon to guard against Fang Lan. After hearing Xiao Tangqiu’s words, he thought for a second before saying, “…..I don’t think he said anything, but….. he seemed to have sang a song?”

Xiao Tangqiu slowly recalled the lyrics of the fishermen song. He instantly realized something, “Let’s go to the village chief’s house!”

“The village chief’s house?”

Tang Mianmian was still rather confused, but he had always believed in Xiao Tangqiu and didn’t ask why. When Fang Lan saw them running, she started to chase after them.

The two men ran like the wind, with Fang Lan hot on their tail. Very soon, they had ran over half the village.

“Damn it! I fucking hate chasing “contests” the most!” As a “handicapped” player, Tang Mianmian loathed the chasing “contests” in video games, what more those in a real-life game. But when he saw how pale Xiao Tangqiu was, he grabbed Xiao Tangqiu by the wrist and pulled him forwards as he ran for his life.

Xiao Tangqiu was gasping for breath so hard that he couldn’t even say a thank you. Ever since he was young, his physical strength had never been good. He had been a geek for so many years; although he had rich experience in running for his life in-game, in reality, it was far off from that. He had neither the physical quality of a protagonist nor the protagonist’s plug-in bundles. It so happened that he didn’t have the luck of the protagonist, but he got the protagonist’s disease of triggering the BOSS’ rage! He hated this “skill” so much!

Did he have a face that looked like he was asking for it, making it impossible for the BOSS to stop chasing him?

Just then, the two of them finally reached the village chief’s door, but Fang Lan had inexplicably stopped at the front. She merely stood there, looking as if she had thought of something as her eyes filled up with resentment.

Seeing this, Xiao Tangqiu quickly pulled Tang Mianmian into the house, found the shovel and went round to the back of the house. As he had expected, because this fishing village had the custom of burying the dead in the back of the house, naturally every household had tools.

Xiao Tangqiu gave Tang Mianmian a shovel and barked, “Dig!”

“Again? We’re digging up graves again?!” Tang Mianmian wanted to cry, but he gritted his teeth and chose to trust Xiao Tangqiu’s judgement unconditionally. He picked up the shovel and started to dig!

They dug as quick as they possibly could, and after a while, perhaps because the grave was rather shallow, they soon dug out a coffin. At this time, Fang Lan, who had been pacing back and forth in front of the house, finally came to look for them. As her gaze landed on Zhou Hai’s coffin, that pair of resentful eyes suddenly shot out bitter hatred.

Tang Mianmian raised his shovel at Fang Lan and threatened with a trembling voice, “Dont…. Don’t…. Don’t you dare come over! Or else, I’ll … I’ll … I’ll hit you with the shovel!”

Xiao Tangqiu used this opportunity to lift the coffin lid. He looked down and frowned; there was a headless corpse in the coffin. And beside the corpse was a bamboo pole used for rowing boats.

The moment Fang Lan saw the headless corpse, she went into a frenzy. That pair of resentful eyes dripped with blood as she violently pounced on Xiao Tangqiu.

At that critical juncture, Xiao Tangqiu decisively pulled out the jade pendant and threw it at Fang Lan’s face.

When the jade pendant touched Fang Lan’s skin, her face suddenly festered and melted off like it had been splashed with acid. Her originally swollen and deformed face became a mangled, unhuman mess. Pieces of rotten flesh fell off her face onto the ground; she screamed hideously as she collapsed into that large patch of festering flesh. The jade pendant crumbled into dust with this one blow.

The jade pendant’s gone……..

At that thought, Xiao Tangqiu’s heart almost jumped out of his chest. He wasn’t sure whether the jade pendant had the power to stop Fang Lan, but he could only fight till the end. Fortunately, the jade pendant was useful, but it had also shattered.

Xiao Tangqiu picked up the bamboo pole from the coffin and shouted at Tang Mianmian who was paralyzed on the ground, “Run! This damn thing isn’t dead yet! “

Before Tang Mianmian could even breathe a sigh of relief, his eyes widened in shock, “Not dead…… not dead yet?!”

“Are you stupid? If she’s really dead, then mission would be completed!” Xiao Tangqiu kicked Tang Mianmian’s butt, “She’s probably lost the ability to act temporarily, so we have to take this chance to run! Run as far can we can ah!”

Looking at the pile of rotten flesh not far away, Tang Mianmian jumped up in horror and started running alongside Xiao Tangqiu, “Fuck! That jade pendant is so powerful but it can only stop her temporarily? What sort of magic weapon would we need to find to kill her completely?! Wait, what are you doing with this bamboo pole? Please don’t tell me you plan to defeat the ghost with this! Even such a long bamboo pole isn’t enough to beat her!”

Xiao Tangqiu had trouble catching his breath, but he still managed to roll his eyes at Tang Mianmian, “Zhou Hai came up with a riddle, and the answer to it is this thing!”

Dewy green leaves and branches in her maiden home

Married out, thereafter, wilted, yellow and wan

Time and again the waters submerge

Resurfacing, gleaming with tears

The answer to the riddle was that bamboo pole.

“Huh?” Tang Mianmian couldn’t wrap his head around it, “When did he come up with a riddle? Why would he give us a riddle?”

Xiao Tangqiu threw the bamboo pole to Tang Mianmian and casually explained. Tang Mianmian suddenly realized, “Oh, so that’s what it is! But what can this thing be used for?”

“I don’t know, but you hold on to it first.” Xiao Tangqiu said with a frown, “There’s still a lot that I don’t understand……”

“Tell me about it, we’ll analyze it together,” Tang Mianmian had no trouble running with that long bamboo pole in his arms.

Xiao Tangqiu frowned and said: “According to Fang Lan’s memories, after she died and turned into an evil spirit, she dug out Zhou Hai’s eyes while he was still alive. So theoretically speaking, Zhou Hai should’ve died after Fang Lan…….”

Tang Mianmian agreed, “There’s nothing wrong with this, so what’s the problem?”

Xiao Tangqiu was silent for a few seconds before burst out, “If Zhou Hai had died after Fang Lan, how could his grave be there? After Fang Lan died and turned into an evil spirit, she burned the entire Yunjia Village. If the whole village was destroyed, who was it that buried Zhou Hai?”

Tang Mianmian paused, “Fang Lan?”

“How is that possible? Fang Lan hated him to the core, why would she dig him a grave? And, why place it behind the village chief’s house?” Xiao Tangqiu contemplated before he said faintly, “Since Zhou Hai’s grave is there, it means that he had already died before all that happened.”

“……Zhou Hai must’ve died before Fang Lan burned the entire Yunjia Village, most likely much earlier than that.”