Paper Figures (Rewrite)

Splash!

An icy, bone-chilling cold instantly enveloped Zhao Ke's entire body. He shuddered all over, and once his consciousness cleared, he opened his mouth—only for several gulps of cold water to pour into his mouth and nose.

After swallowing several mouthfuls of river water, Zhao Ke immediately came to his senses. Seeing the lake's surface above him, he quickly struggled upward.

"Cough, cough, cough... Hah... hah..."

The moment his head broke the surface, Zhao Ke coughed violently for a while before finally gasping for air.

Floating on the water, Zhao Ke cautiously surveyed his surroundings. One thing was certain: he had entered the horror space.

However, unlike last time, he was alone this time.

Old, weathered buildings lined both banks, with several bright red lanterns hanging from them. Their reflections dyed the river crimson, giving the place the feel of a water town in Jiangnan at first glance.

Zhao Ke was lying in the middle of the river, while small boats glided past on either side. Their hulls were pitch-black, as though they had been deliberately painted that way. What was strange was that the boats themselves were dark and empty, seemingly without anyone aboard.

Seeing this, Zhao Ke carefully swam to the side of one boat, braced himself with both hands, and climbed out of the water onto it.

When the cold wind blew over him, Zhao Ke felt as though his body had been scraped by blades. He shivered uncontrollably from the cold, and even his limbs had gone numb.

"Damn it, why did it have to be in the water?!"

He had no idea how much water he had swallowed. Fortunately, he was a decent swimmer and had not panicked after falling in. However, his Post Album did not contain a change of clothes.

His clothes were soaked through. The cold was already unbearable, and the night wind felt like knives against his skin, freezing it until it hurt.

Someone with a weaker constitution would probably have caught a serious illness by now.

At that point, forget the mission—even whether they could get up and endure it would be uncertain.

Zhao Ke slowly got to his feet and moved his numb limbs. He glanced around and saw that there was more than one black boat on the river. They seemed to have been deliberately prepared, drifting one after another along the waterway.

"Strange. Where are these boats going? Why is there no one on them?"

Zhao Ke stared at the boats on the river, puzzled.

The large red lanterns hanging on both banks cast an eerie red glow across the water.

Zhao Ke had not thought much of it at first, but after a while, he began to feel tightness in his chest and nausea. He immediately lowered his head, turned around, and looked toward the boat canopy behind him.

The black canopy was made from bamboo mats arched over the boat. Black curtains hung from both sides, concealing whatever was inside.

Zhao Ke eyed it suspiciously, summoned a dagger from his Post Album, and gently pulled aside the black curtain.

As the curtain opened, two deathly pale faces appeared before him. Zhao Ke's breath caught, and the dagger in his hand instinctively stabbed forward.

But the moment he struck, Zhao Ke discovered that it did not feel as though he had stabbed flesh. It felt more like stabbing wood—hard and solid.

Looking more closely, he saw that both pale faces had two bright patches of rouge on their cheeks. Their black eyes, however, were utterly lifeless.

"Paper figures?"

Zhao Ke stepped closer for a careful look, and the tension in his chest slowly eased. The figures sitting before him were not living people, but a male and female pair of paper figures.

The two paper figures sat inside the boat, looking almost exactly like real people at first glance. Their expressions were lifelike enough that, if not for those lifeless eyes, people might have believed they were alive.

Even so, they were still frightening enough. Spending the middle of the night with two paper figures was creepy just to think about.

But Zhao Ke could not worry about that now. His clothes were already soaked through, and standing outside in the cold wind had left him shivering from head to toe.

He quickly crawled into the boat canopy, summoned his Post Album, and took out a pot of steaming cold tea to drink. Only then did he feel warmth return to his insides.

However, he had not brought extra clothes in his Post Album. His gaze swept over the male and female paper figures before him. When he noticed that the hole he had stabbed through the male paper figure's chest was only a small dent, his brows rose, and he stepped forward to inspect it carefully.

Only then did he realize that although it was a paper figure, its outer paper skin had been pasted together from six or seven layers of paper. It was a full centimeter thick, hard and heavy. When burned, it was like burning wood. If even the paper skin was like that, the figure naturally also had a frame inside. It was rather similar to a human skeleton, though not as complex.

Zhao Ke's eyes lit up as an idea came to him. He began taking off his wet clothes and draped them over the female paper figure, using it as a temporary clothes rack.

After removing his clothes, Zhao Ke's seemingly lean frame revealed a body of toned, powerful muscles. His tough, defined lines and the V-shaped muscles below his abdomen made him look like a leopard ready to erupt at any moment.

Anyone who saw such a physique would never associate Zhao Ke with the profession of a chef.

After taking off his clothes, Zhao Ke grabbed his dagger and began chopping the male paper figure into pieces to use as firewood.

Though he was on a boat, that did not stop him from making a fire. Zhao Ke took a large pot from his Post Album as a stove and tossed the dismantled paper figure into it.

Once the paper figure was lit, Zhao Ke immediately felt much warmer. He also placed his clothes near the fire to dry.

As he dried his clothes, Zhao Ke fell into thought.

He had thought sleeping in the coffin would ease his condition, but this sudden episode had been more severe than any before.

When his symptoms had flared up in the past, they had lasted only a few minutes at most, and sometimes ended in mere seconds.

But this time, it had clearly lasted much longer. It had even gone out to buy ingredients for him.

Who knew what those guys had done while controlling his body.

Hopefully, it wasn't that violent maniac who came out.

Zhao Ke could only prepare for the worst while still clinging to a sliver of hope. His hand stroked the silver cross in his arms as he silently prayed that those guys would not cause him any trouble.

Still, Zhao Ke knew that thinking about it now was pointless. He needed to figure out what mission this horror space had first, complete it as soon as possible, leave, and deal with that mess after returning.

"Jingle, jingle..."

At that moment, a ringing sound interrupted Zhao Ke's thoughts. His ears twitched, and he quickly extinguished the fire. After putting on his nearly dry clothes, he quietly poked his head out from the boat canopy and looked outside.

The ringing in the distance grew closer and closer. Zhao Ke vaguely seemed to make out two figures.

"People!" Zhao Ke's eyes lit up, but when he saw them clearly, he suddenly sensed that something was wrong. The figures did not seem to be adults. More importantly, they did not appear to be standing on a boat, but floating in midair...

This chapter was rewritten. The original was rather messy, so unnecessary rambling was removed.