Burning (2)

I had just thought of that when I saw something growing out from inside the collar.

Pale skin mottled with spots, layers of wrinkles, and then a head of silver hair twisted into a bun.

What emerged from inside the kimono was unmistakably a human head!

A cold sweat broke out all over me, and I trembled with fear. What scared me even more was that my whole body was shaking except for that arm, which remained perfectly still, clutching the kimono by its collar.

"Ah!" Ma Yibing screamed. He seemed to have bumped into something, and a loud clang rang out.

There was no sound from where the skinny guy was. I had no idea whether he'd fainted from fright.

I showed no signs of passing out. My legs had gone weak, but I hadn't fallen. That arm wasn't just holding the kimono—it was holding me up, too.

The figure inside the kimono finally appeared in full, its limbs stretching out from the garment. Beneath the cherry tree behind it, I saw the women appear again. There weren't five this time, but four. They stood side by side, facing me.

I had a bad feeling about this. When ghosts and things like them revealed themselves to people, it usually meant they were about to unleash their ultimate attack, like a boss pulling out its big move when its health bar turned red.

The old woman finally made her move.

Her head whipped around a hundred and eighty degrees. Her face turned toward me, and her eyes, all white with no pupils, stared at me. Her mouth gaped open, revealing a row of blackened teeth.

I smelled something rank, or perhaps it was the scent of flowers. I heard a woman scream, or maybe it was the rustle of the flowering tree in the wind. Before me was an ugly, grotesque old hag, then, a second later, a beautiful young woman.

Before I could make sense of what was happening, my hand suddenly grew heavy. I blinked, and the old hag and the young beauty had vanished. All that remained was a black kimono. It hung down as naturally as anything else, empty inside, with nothing in it.

"Q-Qi-ge?" the skinny guy stammered.

I had no idea where I found the courage, but I held the kimono up with my right hand, took out the lighter with my left, and set the kimono on fire again.

The kimono burned. I tossed it into the metal barrel.

The flames shot up in an instant.

All three of us heard a young girl wailing from inside the barrel.

My hand went out of control again, plunging straight into the flames to pin the kimono down inside the barrel. For the second time, my hand lost all sensation. I couldn't feel the heat of the flames or the fabric beneath my fingers.

The flames shifted from orange-red to pink, and the sparks drifting up from them turned into petals that fluttered through the air. But the eerie beauty was accompanied by the woman's ceaseless screams, and the dark, quiet atmosphere of the agency made the whole scene utterly chilling.

I listened in a daze, barely able to tell that the voices belonged to different people. They were all screaming themselves hoarse. For some reason, I thought of the stray cats meowing in Greenleaf's audio recordings, and of the clients' fearful cries. Their voices were different, yet they gave me exactly the same feeling.

The flames suddenly changed color again. The petals vanished, and a mass of black ghostly fire appeared. In the flames was the old woman's face, the one I'd seen earlier. It was so close to me that I could make out her contorted expression. Twisted to the utmost, it transformed into the beautiful face of a young woman. I'd seen that face too, in the vision I'd had for that brief second. She furrowed her brows and wept silently, her mouth open, unable to speak. But her expression and eyes made it clear she was begging for help.

My heart softened, but my hand was still out of control, pressed firmly into the barrel. Even the sleeve had burned away.

The woman's face changed again a moment later, becoming that evil old hag. She lunged at me, covering my face!

I jumped in fright and tried to back away, but the same problem remained—my hand was holding me in place!

In that brief instant, the old hag had already passed through my head, black flames and all! A chill ran through my entire body, and it felt as though something had entered my head.

"Qi-ge! Qi-ge, are you all right?" The skinny guy rushed over and shook me.

I shook my head and looked up at his worried expression. Then I looked down and saw nothing left in the barrel but ashes. I tried moving my hand and managed to pull it out.

"Qi-ge, are you all right? What happened just now?" The skinny guy asked anxiously. "Is your hand okay? Is your head okay?"

I felt my hand, then my head. There didn't seem to be any injuries.

"So that's it, right? The monster's been destroyed?" Ma Yibing asked us from behind the sofa, trembling with fear.

I saw that the kimono had burned to ashes, with reddish flames still slowly consuming them, and nodded. "It should be fine now."

Ma Yibing let out a long breath and exclaimed, "Bro, I had no idea you were so powerful! You've even got a Kirin arm!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" The skinny guy snapped.

"Sorry, sorry, I just said it without thinking." Ma Yibing grinned apologetically. "It's just that everything's settled now, so I finally relaxed."

The skinny guy looked at me with concern.

I gave him a wry smile and shook my head.

Ma Yibing had no idea what was really going on. He'd seen that I had a key to the place and had dealt with a ghost, so he thought I was some kind of master.

The skinny guy knew my background. He'd long suspected that something was off about Greenleaf Paranormal Agency, so naturally, he saw what had just happened from a different angle.

"Can we leave now?" Ma Yibing asked, waiting for our answer.

I looked at the empty barrel. "Let's go. Take all this stuff with us."

We hadn't used all the oil. The barrel had turned a little black from the fire, and the lighter...

I looked at my empty hand, then shone my phone around, but I couldn't find the lighter anywhere.

"What's wrong, Qi-ge?" The skinny guy carried the barrel, while Ma Yibing carried the oil. Both of them were eager to leave.

I glanced back at the office and flexed my right hand, which had returned to normal. "Nothing. Let's go."

We didn't want to leave either of those things behind, so we went downstairs and threw them straight into a trash can.

The skinny guy called the fat guy and Guo Yujie to ask how things were on their end. He learned that neither of them had run into any trouble. Lu Manning had been examined, and nothing had turned up, but her condition was stable and improving. Chen Xiaoqiu hadn't had any problems to begin with and was still lying in her hospital bed, resting. Only then did the three of us truly feel at ease. The fat guy and Guo Yujie asked how things were on our end, too. The skinny guy gave them a vague answer, then hung up and slung an arm around Ma Yibing's shoulders.

"Big bro, is there anything else you need me to do?" Ma Yibing asked obsequiously.

"Nothing. I just hope you'll keep your mouth shut." The skinny guy's eyes turned fierce.

Ma Yibing nodded vigorously. "I understand, I understand. I won't tell anyone about what happened today. We just burned a kimono."

"Good." The skinny guy nodded in satisfaction.

We parted ways after leaving the residential compound. The skinny guy walked with me slowly to the bus stop.

"Qi-ge, are you really okay?" the skinny guy asked.

"I'm fine." I smiled at him. "Maybe I've opened my third eye. They say people can open their third eye after encountering a ghost, right? From now on, I'll be an expert at catching ghosts and vanquishing demons."

"And you'll even be able to fool a couple of pretty female ghosts into becoming your wives, right?" The skinny guy grinned lecherously. "And save an even prettier female CEO while you're at it."

We looked at each other and laughed. The skinny guy's smile looked awful. Mine probably wasn't any better.

I was afraid my earlier premonition was going to come true. From now on, my life was going to change completely.