By the time Liu Haoyu drove back to the haunted house, Deng Xiaolin looked up at the atmospheric "haunted house" and immediately began cheering excitedly.
"Brother Hao, Brother Hao! Can I pick a room to stay in?!"
Deng Xiaolin gazed at Liu Haoyu expectantly with her tiny eyes, acting coy and adorable as she tried to get an affirmative answer from him.
Unfortunately, Liu Haoyu had no intention of indulging the little girl. He immediately chopped her on the forehead with the edge of his hand.
"No way."
"Ow! Fine, don't give me one... Stingy."
Deng Xiaolin rubbed her head, looking somewhat sullen.
The two of them then entered the haunted house. Deng Xiaolin looked around curiously, glancing left and right.
In her eyes, the gloomy and terrifying atmosphere seemed as festive as celebrating the New Year.
"Remember, don't go moving things around."
Liu Haoyu reminded her, receiving a bobbing nod from Deng Xiaolin like a pecking chick.
After what happened at the reservoir, she had learned her lesson.
Once Liu Haoyu brought Deng Xiaolin back to the bedroom, the young man continued speaking.
"At midnight tonight, I'll take you on a walk through this haunted house. Help me find something."
"Mhm, mhm, mhm!"
"For now, go to sleep."
To stay alert at night, Liu Haoyu usually slept in the evening and woke up shortly before midnight.
The period from evening until midnight was when the yin energy was still relatively weak. Combined with the darkness outside, sleeping then was at least more comfortable than sleeping during the day.
"Okay."
To experience an exciting and nerve-racking haunted-house exploration, Deng Xiaolin naturally obeyed Liu Haoyu without complaint.
She calmed her excitement and closed her eyes, forcing herself to fall asleep.
After seeing Deng Xiaolin close her eyes, Liu Haoyu set up formations and candles by the door and window before lying down.
There was no mat or sleeping pad, so Liu Haoyu could only sleep on the wooden floor.
When Deng Xiaolin saw Liu Haoyu lying on the ground, she could not help asking,
"Brother Hao, are you coming up to sleep with me?"
"No need."
Liu Haoyu coldly rejected Deng Xiaolin's proposal like a true sigma man.
The latter puffed out her cheeks until they looked like a pufferfish, then angrily turned over.
Liu Haoyu looked at Deng Xiaolin on the bed without saying a word.
Liu Haoyu naturally had his reasons for bringing Deng Xiaolin here.
The haunted house seemed dangerous, but after the previous buyers moved in, they had only been frightened. They were still alive and well.
And he had not only performed a somewhat offensive Ghost Sacrifice ritual—he had even failed.
Yet despite that, he was still alive.
So Liu Haoyu guessed... Qin Liu did not kill people.
She mostly just frightened people and drove anyone who tried to enter the house away.
That was fine, too. It was a perfect chance to give the ignorant little girl Deng Xiaolin a scare.
That way, she would stop thinking about ghosts and monsters all day long.
***
Outside the window, the dim moon gradually rose.
Gray mist shrouded the world outside.
In the pitch-black darkness, Deng Xiaolin discovered that the temperature in the room had dropped to a frightening level.
She rubbed at the goosebumps covering her body, but the cold still woke her up completely.
She then tried to find the folded blanket at the foot of the bed.
However, no matter how much she searched, she could not feel the blanket anywhere.
She had no choice but to wake up fully.
Looking around the dim room, she saw that, for some unknown reason, the candle inside had already dwindled to a faint flame.
The fire was extremely weak and could not dispel the darkness in the room.
"Brother Hao... where's the blanket?"
Deng Xiaolin rubbed her eyes, only to realize that at some point, she had become the only person left in the room.
Liu Haoyu, who should have been lying on the floor, had disappeared.
A trace of timidity and fear rose in Deng Xiaolin's heart.
But her obsession with ghosts and monsters gradually helped her calm down.
"He probably went to the bathroom, right?"
Thinking that, Deng Xiaolin closed her eyes again and tried to fall asleep.
However, the room was as cold as an ice cellar. Without a blanket, Deng Xiaolin naturally could not fall asleep.
After tossing and turning for a long while, she could only open her eyes.
The wind outside the window was strong enough to blow the curtains straight up.
Perhaps that was why the temperature inside was so low.
So Deng Xiaolin gathered her courage and prepared to close the window again.
But just then, she saw what seemed to be a human figure hanging outside the curtains illuminated by the moonlight.
The figure seemed to be swaying constantly in the wind.
It swung back and forth like a pendulum.
Deng Xiaolin's back was already drenched in cold sweat.
She picked up the Peach Wood Sword beside the bed.
It had been a birthday present from her grandfather when she was little. Supposedly, it was a weapon capable of dealing with Fierce Ghosts.
Gripping the hilt of the Peach Wood Sword tightly, Deng Xiaolin cautiously felt her way to the window.
Looking at the curtains billowing in the wind, Deng Xiaolin secretly swallowed, then reached out and grabbed them.
Little by little, she pulled them open.
She saw that there was no hanged ghost or human figure outside the curtains.
There was only a stain on the window that looked vaguely like a person.
Seeing this, Deng Xiaolin could not help sighing in relief. She immediately prepared to close the window.
But when her hand touched the window handle, her entire body froze.
The window... had never been open at all.
Then what had caused the wind just now?
The more Deng Xiaolin thought about it, the more terrified she became.
Her back was already soaked through with cold sweat.
She had always thought she was quite brave, but when she faced a situation like this for the first time, she realized she had overestimated herself.
What should she do!?
"Tap... tap..."
Deng Xiaolin was already completely panicked. When she heard the sound like dripping water, her scalp went numb.
She did not dare look behind her, as if something terrifying was waiting for her to turn around.
When her grandfather had told her scary stories as a child, he had mentioned that if she ever encountered a situation like this, she must not turn around... must not turn around...
Back then, she had not taken it seriously. But after experiencing it herself, Deng Xiaolin was nowhere near as calm as she had once imagined.
Her body stiff, she stared fixedly at the moon outside the window.
Forget turning around—even moving at all made Deng Xiaolin feel as if she would die on the spot.
But her refusal to turn around did not mean the thing behind her would let her go.
Before long, Deng Xiaolin felt something smooth, icy, and slightly itchy touch her back.
Was this hair?
Whose hair?
While Deng Xiaolin was thinking, the hair had already wound tightly around her neck.
What should she do? What should she do?!
Deng Xiaolin was completely beside herself. She no longer cared whether she should turn around. She immediately screamed and swept the Peach Wood Sword in her hand sideways.
But it struck nothing. The thing that should have been wrapped around her neck had also vanished without a trace.
Deng Xiaolin gasped heavily. What had just happened was far too terrifying.
Before she could calm down, she tensed up again. The figure that should have been hanging outside the house had somehow appeared inside.
The hanged person began slowly turning around. When Deng Xiaolin saw that purplish face, her heartbeat seemed to stop.
The person who had been hanged was none other than...
Herself.
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