Ghost Shadow II

Ghost Shadow II

Faced with Yu Hong's questions, the girl was completely unable to react. She did not know which question to answer first.

She stood there blankly, the medicine box in her hands trembling so violently that it seemed as though the medicine might shake loose at any moment.

Click.

The room's door was pushed open again—from outside.

A middle-aged woman in a filthy white coat walked in. Yellow skin, black hair, and black-rimmed glasses—it was precisely the woman from earlier, the one who had seemed to be a doctor.

"I'll answer your questions. Don't make things hard for Yi Yi. She was sick before and got badly frightened. Her speech and mind aren't very sharp."

The woman walked to the bedside and placed a light-gray kettle from her hand onto the wooden bedside table.

"We don't know how you got here. Last night, when Yi Yi went out to gather firewood, she happened to find you in a dirt pit and dragged you back."

"When we found you, you were unconscious. You didn't seem to have any external injuries, just a fever while you were out cold. Yi Yi fed you quite a lot of filtered water, and you only woke up after a whole night."

At this point, the woman let out a breath.

"Now, about this place. This is White Mound Village. It's surrounded by deep mountains, and the only connection to the outside world is an Old Highway to the west."

She paused.

"I'm the village doctor. My surname is Xu. She's Lin Yi Yi, an orphan who lives here alone. There isn't any other important information. All right, I've said what needed saying. Your turn. Who are you? How did you get here? Why did you come here?"

"Doctor Xu, may I call you that?" Yu Hong sorted through the situation and said in a low voice, enduring the pain in his throat.

When she nodded, he continued.

"My name is Yu Hong. I was originally just sleeping at home, and then..." He recounted the sensations he had experienced earlier in detail.

"I don't know how I got here either. I..." He struggled to raise a hand and covered his forehead.

"How old are you?" Doctor Xu suddenly asked.

"Twenty. Twenty-seven." Yu Hong answered reflexively.

"Enough. You can't go back anyway. In times like these, it doesn't matter where you came from or how you got here. Without a vehicle, going outside means death. You'll probably have to stay here for quite a long time." Doctor Xu spoke flatly.

"??? No vehicle? Couldn't you... borrow one and take me to the nearest station? I can pay!" Yu Hong was rather stunned.

"A station?" This time, Doctor Xu was the one dumbfounded. "What nonsense are you talking about? What station? Who would drive you anywhere these days? The outside is full of all sorts of monsters. Going out alone is just courting death, isn't it?"

"Monsters?!" Yu Hong froze.

"What monsters??" He suspected that she was acting, or that there was something wrong with her mind.

But as Doctor Xu stared at him with the look one gave an idiot, Yu Hong vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

A little panic rose in his heart.

He was just an ordinary office worker. No one would be willing to spend a fortune hiring actors of this caliber just to deceive him, right???

"It's over. He really is an idiot." Doctor Xu raised her head, her face helpless.

"An idiot paired with an idiot. You two really are something else."

She turned her face to glance out the window.

"It's still early. Once it gets dark, you'll know. I'm leaving first. Yi Yi, keep an eye on him. Don't let him open the door tonight."

"Okay..." Little Stutterer hurriedly nodded.

Seeing Doctor Xu about to leave through the door, Little Stutterer hurriedly called out.

"Medicine! Medicine! Sister..." she cried anxiously.

"..." Doctor Xu heard her, glanced back at Yu Hong, and understood.

She took a mercury thermometer from her pocket and shoved it into Yu Hong's mouth.

"Take your temperature."

After waiting a while, she pulled out the thermometer and looked at it.

"38.5. You won't die."

"Medicine... mine is bad..." Little Stutterer hurriedly handed over the medicine box in her hands for Doctor Xu to inspect.

The mold stains on the medicine made Doctor Xu frown as well.

"Yi Yi, I don't have much medicine left either. The Post Office only goes to the city once a month."

At those words, Little Stutterer immediately grew anxious. She looked left and right, then quickly found something like a yam atop a cabinet in the corner and handed it over.

"Trade, this... trade for... medicine!"

Doctor Xu shook her head, saying it was not enough.

Then Little Stutterer began rummaging through other places.

The two haggled back and forth, their voices continuously reaching Yu Hong's ears.

Listening to them made him drowsier and drowsier. His spirits sank further, and soon he gradually fell asleep again.

The pain in his throat, the heaviness in his head, and the weakness throughout his body made it impossible for him to get up.

His body's instinctive self-healing mechanism drove him to recover his strength quickly through sleep.

Time passed swiftly.

He did not know how long had passed. Perhaps an hour, perhaps three. For someone muddled with fever, time had no measure.

Yu Hong slowly awakened from his deep sleep.

His entire body ached. He felt weak and drained, and his throat seemed blocked by something—a huge mass lodged inside, leaving him unable to make a sound.

Opening his eyes, he laboriously propped himself up from the bed and surveyed his surroundings.

The room was completely quiet.

The small square bedroom had walls and a ceiling made entirely of pale-yellow wood.

The floor, however, was Black Mud, smooth and dry. In some corners, grass had even sprouted.

Yu Hong slowly turned sideways, placed his legs over the edge of the bed, then lowered them bit by bit until his feet touched the ground.

The solid sensation of his feet planted firmly on the earth inexplicably eased his heart.

He lowered his head and looked himself over.

A grayish-white short-sleeved T-shirt, with a cartoon tiger head printed on the chest and some yellow stains. His pants were creamy-yellow casual trousers, though they looked badly wrinkled now.

Both gray socks had holes at the big toes, and two large toes caked with Black Mud stuck out.

What is this? He looked at the back of his right hand, where a black mark had appeared at some unknown time.

The mark looked like an ancient seal. Atop the square stamp lay something resembling a lump of rotten mud. There were no patterns and no characters; at a glance, it looked like a birthmark.

But Yu Hong clearly remembered that he had no birthmark this large, much less on the conspicuous back of his right hand.

He reached out and rubbed the mark. It neither hurt nor itched.

He tried wiping it, found that it would not come off, and temporarily gave up.

After checking himself again and confirming that he had no external injuries, Yu Hong touched the stubble on his chin and turned toward the window.

The window was to the right of the bed. It was square, with horizontal Wooden Boards nailed across both the inside and outside, tightly sealed. It looked as if it had been fortified against a lunatic, disorderly yet steeped in unease.

Dim yellow light slanted in from outside, leaving a dull patch of yellow beside the bed.

Yu Hong took a breath and found the air strange, carrying an indescribable scorched, burnt smell.

He took several steps to the door. At the foot of the Wooden Door lay a thick stack of old newspapers.

After a pause, he bent down and laboriously picked up the stack, looking at the topmost paper.

"Highest Alert: Major Black Calamities Strike Regions Across the Country in Recent Days"

The enormous headline occupied nearly half the newspaper's page.

Below it were the details.

".The constant outbreaks of Black Calamities and the helpless weakness of the response departments have brought enormous threats to the lives and safety of the people. Facing this grave situation, the National Disaster Prevention Committee has urgently established the Emergency Management Department, launching rapid responses in areas severely afflicted by Black Calamities and making every effort to organize rescue work..."

Rustle.

Frowning, Yu Hong flipped it over.

A photograph of bustling disaster relief efforts appeared before him.

It showed gray, dusty ruins of buildings. People in heavy protective suits were carrying stretchers, lifting out one charred black body after another.

"Black Calamity?" He had never heard the term before.

He then turned to the newspapers beneath it.

"Massive insect disaster strikes. How should we respond?"

"Food shortages, drinking water difficulties. National rescue teams give their all to free tens of thousands from their plight."

"Suspected biochemical agent leak. Yiguan Urban District urgently sealed off, a wall of vehicles erected."

"Experts speak on dealing with Black Calamity Blood Ticks."

"The first Hope City officially completed, tens of thousands move in."

Amid the rustling of turning pages, Yu Hong's expression grew increasingly grave.

Beyond the bizarre abnormality of those headlines, there was an even more crucial point he suddenly realized. These newspapers were not written in any language he had ever learned—not Chinese, not English, not French, Spanish, Russian, or anything else.

They were written in an entirely unfamiliar language.

"Damn it!"

Yu Hong put down the newspapers and checked the date.

'January 3, 2020.'

He could understand words in an unseen language. The strangeness of it made threads of discomfort rise in his heart.

Putting the newspapers back where they had been, Yu Hong looked at the door before him.

The door was grayish-black, with one large and one small rectangular pattern arranged vertically on it. The doorknob was white, though some of the paint had chipped away, exposing the black metal underneath.

He reached out and gripped the handle. Its cold, solid feel jolted him awake, and then he gently twisted it.

Click.

The door opened.

Outside the doorway were three gray Stone Steps.

Beyond them was a battered Gravel Road.

Across the road stood a dark little single-story house with its door open.

Gray-white walls, black rotting tiles.

The house was only a little over three meters tall. Red slogan characters had been painted on the exterior wall, but they were so blurred that their contents were no longer discernible.

Pebbles and withered yellow leaves remained on the slanted tiles. Whenever the wind blew, they rolled about with faint rustling sounds.

Yu Hong stepped outside and only then realized he was not wearing shoes. He had come out in nothing but his torn gray socks.

Stepping on the gravel was uncomfortable too; the stones dug into his feet.

So he simply stood where he was.

He looked to either side.

Along both sides of the Gravel Road stood one stone-walled, tiled-roof house after another.

These Tiled Houses were all extremely old and dilapidated. Their walls were covered in mold and stains, and some bore red slogans: "A lifetime of happiness, peace and fortune for the whole family," "One person insured, the whole family safe," "Guard against fire, insects, and dampness." The Gravel Road was somewhat dark, sunlight blocked by the houses, with only a little slanting through the doors and windows.

That was only because the houses were relatively low.

He looked around.

The Tiled Houses stood like people lined up in a queue, similar in height, decrepit beyond measure. Their doors and windows let in the wind. Most of the dark Wooden Doors stood open, revealing empty interiors and nothing but the mournful howl of the wind.

He raised his head, turned around, and looked toward the house where he had been staying.

Sure enough, although his place was also a Tiled House, it differed from the others.

Thick black-and-yellow Wooden Boards had been nailed over the doors and windows, with heavy cloth stuffed into every gap. The threshold was higher than those of the other houses as well.

This place... An inexplicable sense of ill omen rose within Yu Hong.

Click.

Suddenly, a faint sound came from the distance to his right.

It sounded like a shoe stepping on gravel.

He hurriedly looked toward it.

Inside an open doorway of a house on the right side of the road stood a blurred White-Clad Figure, watching him from the darkness.

From far away, Yu Hong seemed to see the other man smiling at him.

"What the hell are you smiling at?" Yu Hong frowned and ignored him.

Though he wanted to find someone to ask about the situation, the other man looked somewhat deranged and abnormal. It made him uncomfortable.

So he planned to find someone else.

He turned away and stopped looking in that direction, instead sweeping his gaze over the other Tiled Houses one by one, trying to find another person inside them.

Unfortunately, after looking around, he found no one else.

Thus, he could only turn back toward the White-Clad Figure.

But the instant he did, his heart sank.

The White-Clad Figure was no longer in the house where he had just been.

Instead, he had appeared in another house much closer to Yu Hong.

He stood in the shadow inside the doorway, smiling at him.

Only a dozen or so seconds had passed between then and now, yet the distance had closed by at least several dozen meters.

Most bizarre of all, despite being so much closer, Yu Hong still could not see the man's features. He could only barely make out that he was smiling, that his skin was very pale, and that he was male.

He had not heard any running. How had this person crossed such a vast distance in an instant?

Yu Hong's scalp began to prickle.

He took a breath, abruptly turned his head toward another direction, then snapped it back toward the White-Clad Figure.

No more than a second had passed.

Yet in that single second.

The White-Clad Figure was no longer in the previous house. He had vanished again, appearing inside a house diagonally opposite Yu Hong, less than ten meters away.

The man was still in the shadows beyond the doorway, still standing motionless, still smiling at him.

"Fuck!!" Terror surged through Yu Hong's heart as he slowly backed away.

What made it even stranger was that from such close range—and Yu Hong was not nearsighted—he still could not make out the man's features clearly!

Recalling what had just happened, he did not dare blink at all. He merely backed away slowly.

Then, once he had retreated inside the doorway, he kept staring at the man while slowly closing the door.

Slowly.

Only an arm-wide gap remained in the door.

Yu Hong had kept himself from blinking, but his eyes grew increasingly sore and uncomfortable. Tears began gathering at the corners, more and more of them.

He was about to be unable to hold on.