Paper Figures

Splash!

An icy chill instantly wrapped around Zhao Ke's entire body. He shuddered all over, and as soon as his mind cleared, he opened his mouth and several gulps of cold water poured into his nose and mouth.

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

"Cough, cough, cough... Haa... haa..."

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

Floating on the water, Zhao Ke cautiously looked around. One thing was certain: he had entered the horror space.

But unlike last time, he was alone this time.

Old, ancient buildings stood along 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 southern China at first glance.

He 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. Strangely, the boats were dark inside as well, seemingly empty.

Seeing this, Zhao Ke carefully swam to one of the boats. Bracing himself with both hands, he climbed out of the water and sprawled onto it.

When the cold wind blew over him, Zhao Ke felt as though his body had been scraped by blades. He shivered uncontrollably, and even his hands and feet 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 completely soaked. He was already freezing, and the night wind felt like knives against his skin, making it ache from the cold.

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

Forget about completing a mission—they might not even be able to get up and survive.

Zhao Ke slowly climbed to his feet and moved his numb limbs. He looked around. There was more than one black boat on the river; they seemed to have been deliberately prepared, drifting one after another down 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 from both banks cast an eerie red glow over the water.

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

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

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

As the curtain parted, two ghastly pale faces appeared before him. Zhao Ke's breath caught in his chest, and his hand instinctively drove the dagger forward.

But the instant he stabbed, Zhao Ke realized that it did not feel like he had pierced flesh. It felt more like stabbing wood—hard and solid.

Looking closer, he saw that the two pale faces had large patches of vivid red rouge on their cheeks. Their glossy black eyes, however, were utterly lifeless.

"Paper figures?"

Zhao Ke moved closer and examined them carefully, slowly letting out a breath. The ones seated before him were not living people, but a male and female pair of paper figures.

The two paper figures sat in the boat, looking exactly like real people at first glance. Their expressions were incredibly lifelike. If not for those dead eyes, people might have believed they were alive.

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

But Zhao Ke could not worry about that now. His clothes were soaked through, and the cold wind outside made him shiver nonstop.

He quickly crawled into the boat canopy and summoned his Post Album. First, he took out a pot of steaming cold tea and drank it. Only then did his insides begin to warm up.

However, there were no spare clothes in his Post Album. Zhao Ke's gaze swept over the male and female paper figures. When he saw that the hole he had stabbed through the male figure's chest was merely a shallow dent, his brows rose and he stepped forward for a closer look.

Only then did he discover that although they were paper figures, their outer paper skin consisted of six or seven layers of pasted paper. It was a full centimeter thick, hard and heavy. When burned, it burned like wood. The skin alone was like this, to say nothing of the framework inside the figures. It was fairly similar to a human skeleton, though much less complex.

Zhao Ke's eyes lit up as he thought of a good idea. He began taking off his wet clothes and draped them over the female paper figure, using her as a temporary clothes rack.

Once he had removed his clothes, Zhao Ke's seemingly lean body revealed a set of toned, powerful muscles. The tough, defined lines and the V-shaped muscles below his abdomen made him look like a leopard ready to explode into action 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, intending to use it as firewood.

Although he was on a boat, it did not prevent him from making a fire. Zhao Ke took a large pot from his Post Album to use as a stove and threw the dismantled paper figure inside.

Once he lit the paper figure, Zhao Ke immediately felt much warmer. At the same time, he placed his clothes beside the fire to dry.

As he dried his clothes, Zhao Ke fell into deep 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 merely seconds at the shortest.

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

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

I just hope it wasn't that violent maniac who came out.

Zhao Ke could only prepare for the worst while clinging to a sliver of hope. He touched the silver cross in his clothes and silently prayed that those guys would not cause him any trouble.

But Zhao Ke also knew there was no use thinking about it now. He needed to find out what mission this horror space had first, complete it as soon as possible, leave, and deal with that mess when he got back.

"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 dried clothes, he quietly poked his head out from beneath the boat canopy and looked outside.

The ringing grew closer and closer in the distance. Zhao Ke vaguely seemed to see 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 boats, but floating in midair...

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