Thump, thump. Metal cleats struck the tiled floor with a hollow sound.
Feng Yushu hadn't even had a moment to rejoice at finding her daughter before a young man in a plaid long-sleeved shirt and work pants came into view. He wore sturdy hiking boots, their steel cleats striking the floor with a thump, thump.
Under normal circumstances, walking wouldn't make the soles of his boots strike the floor with such a crisp sound. But he wasn't walking.
Like the classic hopping zombies from Hong Kong horror movies, the Work Clothes Man kept his legs together and stretched straight, bouncing up the stairs, down the hallway, and toward Feng Yushu.
The scene might have been comical, but to Feng Yushu it was horrifying, sending a chill through her.
Because she had just seen this Work Clothes Man.
That had been moments earlier, when she and Ning Zhe crossed the hall together. Keeping close to the wall, she had carefully avoided the fresh corpses strewn across the floor as they made their way toward the stairs. Each body had died differently, with an expression frozen at the moment of death: some looked dazed, others confused, and some utterly horrified.
One of them was an electrician who had been checking the breaker box and the wiring inside the walls as usual. He had been focused and serious, completely unaware that death was approaching—until that rapt, serious expression was frozen on his corpse like a plaster cast.
Thump—
The Work Clothes Man hopped forward again. His hands hung straight at his sides, pressed against his hips. He stood as rigid as a javelin driven hard into the ground.
His gaze remained fixed, and his serious expression was still the same one he'd worn while checking the wiring before he died.
Thump, thump—
The Work Clothes Man hopped forward twice, closing the distance in an instant. Now only two rooms separated him from Feng Yushu.
The ornate Crystal Lamps overhead scattered beautiful flecks of light across the floor. The faint shadow beneath the man stretched long and farther still. The threat of death filled Feng Yushu's chest with icy dread, tightening every nerve to its limit.
The only reason she didn't turn and run was that Ning Zhe and her daughter were still inside the room.
"Ning Zhe, the ghost... the ghost is coming upstairs..." Feng Yushu's voice trembled as she tried to suppress the fear in her throat.
Almost immediately, a soft, youthful voice came from inside the room. It was Baizhi.
"Turn off the lights."
Feng Yushu froze. "Azhi?"
"Turn off the lights," Ning Zhe called from inside, too.
Feng Yushu immediately understood what he meant, but there was no time to look for the switch. She hurriedly fished her iPad Mini out of her handbag, then tossed it straight up at the Crystal Lamp on the ceiling ahead.
With a bright clatter of shattering crystals, one Crystal Lamp went dark. Feng Yushu's view dimmed at once.
The Crystal Lamp above the hallway wasn't the only one. Though one had gone out, the others still shone, and bright white light spilled from the windows of the rooms lining the corridor. The entire Castle blazed with light. Only the area in front of the room where Feng Yushu stood was relatively dark.
Thump—
The Work Clothes Man landed heavily on the floor. He stood upright, perfectly still, his serious expression as if he were examining something—or perhaps he was simply frozen in the posture he'd held before he died.
The ghost had stopped moving?
Standing outside Baizhi's door, Feng Yushu stared tensely at the rigid corpse beneath the lights, not daring to breathe. She could feel her heart pounding like a runaway horse, struggling to leap out of her throat.
Just then, a black-and-white bird flew in through the window. It was a magpie.
Ning Zhe hopped onto Feng Yushu's shoulder and watched the rigid corpse beneath the lights with her, his thoughts in disarray.
"The ghost stopped moving after the lights went out." Ning Zhe surveyed the surroundings and spoke softly. "More precisely, it stopped moving after you hid in the dark."
Feng Yushu looked around. It was true. The spacious, brightly lit Castle had few corners untouched by light, except for the place where she was standing.
That reminded her of what Baizhi had said earlier: "Within this ghost's range, light means danger, and darkness means safety. As long as you hide in the dark, it won't find you or kill you."
The ghost was behaving exactly as Baizhi had described. It still stood rigidly beneath the Crystal Lamp, its focused, serious expression seeming to search for something, yet it had failed to find it.
Then a sharp sound came from downstairs, like a table or chair toppling over.
"Hmm?" Ning Zhe noticed that the moment the sound rang out, the eyes of the rigid corpse seemed to move.
It was looking at the floor beneath its feet—or rather, at the first-floor hall below.
The next moment, the Work Clothes Man's corpse fell to the ground.
His body was no longer rigid. He toppled face-first onto the floor, striking it with a bright little burst of blood. His limbs sprawled at odd angles, just like every corpse Feng Yushu had passed on the way there.
"The ghost's gone," Ning Zhe said softly. "It couldn't find you in the dark. Maybe it turned to look for whoever made that noise in the hall."
Feng Yushu let out a long breath. In that moment, she felt her whole body go limp, her legs trembling.
"Ning Zhe, you've saved me again..." Feng Yushu put a hand to her chest, still shaken. "I don't even know how to thank you."
"Your daughter saved you, not me," Ning Zhe said casually. "Let's find a way to open the door."
Once he was sure that darkness meant safety, Ning Zhe relaxed a little. After spending some time working together with Baizhi from opposite sides, they managed to pry open the door, whose lock had been blocked.
As soon as the door opened, Feng Yushu hurried forward and pulled the girl in her loose nightgown into her arms. Her voice shook with emotion. "Thank goodness you're safe. I'm so glad you're all right..."
Baizhi didn't seem very used to her mother's embrace, but she didn't pull away. She tucked the loose strands of hair behind her ear, revealing a pale, haggard face, then looked at Ning Zhe, who stood nearby. "Who are you?"
"My name is Ning Zhe."
Baizhi shook her head. "I know your name. I'm asking who you are. What are you? How do you know ghosts exist? What's your relationship with my mother?"
Ning Zhe shrugged. "You could say your mom and I took a trip through your dream together."
"Huh?" Baizhi froze.
"Let's talk inside. It's dark in there." Ning Zhe said, then stepped past mother and daughter and entered the room.
The three of them went inside and shut the door. Feng Yushu briefly told Baizhi how she'd wound up in He Family Village and escaped with Ning Zhe's help. Ning Zhe merely listened. They couldn't see the girl's expression in the dark, but they could hear her breathing grow heavier and more hurried as the story went on.
"So..." Baizhi sounded stunned. Her mother's experience had clearly shaken her.
"Now that you know where I came from, it's my turn to ask questions." Ning Zhe wasn't interested in Baizhi's feelings, and went straight to the point.
"When the ghost first appeared in the Manor, I tried to investigate the scene where it killed someone. Then I died. I was standing on a treetop, and even the nearest corpse was more than ten meters away. But just now, your mom was only two rooms away from the ghost—less than ten meters. She was much closer to it than I was."
"So why did I die on the spot, before I could even react, while she had time to stare, freeze, get a warning from you, and then fumble around trying to smash the Crystal Lamp?"
Ning Zhe's voice wasn't loud, but he enunciated every word with perfect clarity. "The ghost didn't kill your mother right away. Why?"
Baizhi fell silent for a moment, then answered:
"Because the ghost is afraid of light."
Ning Zhe was surprised. "Didn't you say before that the ghost needed light in order to kill?"
Why were you saying now that the ghost was afraid of light?
Before you continue