Chasing Light Butterfly

Thump. Thump. It was the sound of metal shoe spikes striking the floor tiles.

Feng Yushu didn't even have a moment to feel happy about finding her daughter before her eyes were met by a young man wearing a plaid long-sleeved shirt and work overalls. He wore a pair of sturdy hiking boots, and the anti-slip steel spikes embedded in the soles struck the ground, emitting a rhythmic thumping sound.

Normal walking wouldn't cause such a crisp sound when the soles hit the ground, but he was hopping.

Just like the classic zombie imagery from Hong Kong horror films, the Work Clothes Man kept his legs together and straight, hopping up the stairs, crossing the corridor, and jumping toward where Feng Yushu stood.

This scene, which could be described as comical, was so terrifying to Feng Yushu that it made her shudder.

Because she had just seen this Work Clothes Man a moment ago.

That was when she was crossing the lobby with Ning Zhe earlier; she had hugged the wall, carefully avoiding the fresh corpses strewn across the floor as she headed for the stairs. These corpses had died in various ways, their expressions frozen at the final moment of their lives—some dazed, some confused, and others terrified.

Among them was an electrical worker who had been performing routine safety checks on a power distribution box and the wiring inside the wall. His expression had been serious and focused, completely unaware of the arrival of death, until that look of intense concentration was frozen onto his corpse like a plaster cast.

Thump—

The Work Clothes Man hopped forward again. His hands hung at his sides, pressed straight against his pelvis, his entire body as rigid as a javelin, stabbing heavily into the ground.

His gaze remained fixed, and the serious expression still lingered from the moment he had been checking the wires before his death.

Thump-thump—

The Work Clothes Man hopped twice in succession, instantly closing the distance. Now, only two rooms separated him from Feng Yushu.

The gorgeous Crystal Lamp on the corridor ceiling cast beautiful, fragmented light spots onto the floor, stretching the faint shadow beneath the man's feet long and thin. The cold threat of death filled Feng Yushu's Chest Cavity, stretching her nerves to the breaking point.

The 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 has come upstairs..." Feng Yushu's voice trembled slightly, struggling to suppress the fear in her throat.

Almost immediately, a soft girl's voice came from inside the room—it was Baizhi's voice:

"Turn off the lights, quickly."

Feng Yushu was stunned: "Azhi?"

"Turn off the lights," Ning Zhe's voice also came through.

Feng Yushu reacted immediately to what he meant, but there was no time to find the light switch. She hurriedly fished her iPad Mini out of her handbag and threw the tablet directly upward, aiming straight for the Crystal Lamp on the ceiling ahead.

With a crisp, shattering sound of glass, the Crystal Lamp went out, and Feng Yushu's field of vision instantly dimmed.

The Crystal Lamp above the corridor wasn't the only one; with one extinguished, the other Crystal Lamps remained lit. Bright white light also shone from the windows of the rooms in rows. The entire castle was brightly illuminated, and only the area in front of the room where Feng Yushu stood was relatively dark.

Thump—

The Work Clothes Man's feet landed heavily on the ground. He stood straight in place, motionless, his serious expression as if he were examining something, or perhaps simply maintaining his appearance from before death.

The Ghost stopped moving?

Feng Yushu stood in front of Baizhi's Room Door, staring nervously at the straight corpse standing under the light, not daring to even breathe. She could feel her heart pounding, struggling like a wild horse trying to leap out of her throat.

At this moment, a black and white bird emerged from the window—it was a Magpie.

Ning Zhe jumped onto Feng Yushu's shoulder, observing the corpse standing straight under the light with her, his thoughts in turmoil.

"After the lights go out, the Ghost stops moving." Ning Zhe scanned the surrounding environment and said softly: "To be precise, after you hide in the dark, the Ghost stops moving."

Feng Yushu looked around. It was indeed true; there were very few blind spots in the spacious and bright castle that weren't illuminated by light sources, except for where she was standing.

This made her think of what Baizhi had said earlier: "Within the activity range of this Ghost, light means danger, and darkness represents safety. As long as you hide in the dark, you won't be found or killed by the Ghost."

The Ghost now was exactly as Baizhi had described; it still stood motionless and straight under the Crystal Lamp, its focused and serious expression seemingly searching for something, but it never managed to find it.

Just then, a crisp sound suddenly came from downstairs, like a table or chair falling over.

"Hmm?" Ning Zhe noticed that the moment the sound of the furniture falling rang out, the eyes of the straight-standing corpse seemed to move.

It was looking at the Floorboard beneath its feet, or rather, looking at the lobby on the first floor below the floor.

The next moment, the corpse of the Work Clothes Man collapsed to the ground.

His body was no longer straight; he fell face-down, creating a small, bright splash of blood. His Limbs splayed out irregularly, just like every corpse Feng Yushu had encountered along the way.

"The Ghost is gone," Ning Zhe said softly. "It couldn't find you hiding in the dark, so it might have turned to find the person who made the sound in the lobby."

Feng Yushu let out a long sigh of relief. In that instant, she felt her entire body go limp, her legs trembling.

"Ning Zhe, you saved me again..." Feng Yushu placed a hand over her chest, still shaken: "I don't even know how to thank you."

"The one who saved you was your daughter; it has nothing to do with me," Ning Zhe said nonchalantly. "Find a way to open the door."

After confirming the premise that "darkness = safety," Ning Zhe also relaxed his mindset slightly. After spending some time, he and Baizhi coordinated from inside and outside to pry open the door with the jammed lock.

As soon as the door opened, Feng Yushu immediately stepped forward and pulled the girl in the loose nightgown into her arms, her excited voice laced with tears: "Thank goodness, you're okay, thank goodness..."

Baizhi didn't seem very used to her Mother's embrace, but she didn't pull away. She tucked her loose hair behind her ears, revealing a pale, haggard face, and looked at Ning Zhe, who was standing to the side: "Who are you?"

"My name is Ning Zhe."

Baizhi shook her head: "I know your name. I'm asking for your identity. Who are you? Why do you know about the existence of the Ghost? What is your relationship with my Mother?"

Ning Zhe spread his hands: "You can understand it as me going on a trip into your dreams with your Mother."

"Eh?" Baizhi was stunned.

"Let's go inside and talk; it's dark in there," Ning Zhe said, stepping past the mother and daughter into the room.

The three of them entered the room and closed the door. Feng Yushu gave Baizhi a brief account of how she had stumbled into He Family Village and how, with Ning Zhe's help, she had managed to escape alive; Ning Zhe simply listened on the sidelines. In the darkness, the girl's facial expressions were invisible, but one could feel her breathing grow heavier and more rapid as the narrative progressed.

"To think..." Baizhi's voice was filled with astonishment; Feng Yushu's experience had clearly dealt her quite a shock.

"You already know my background, so now it is my turn to ask questions." Ning Zhe did not care about Baizhi's internal journey and spoke directly:

"When the Ghost first appeared in the Manor, I tried to investigate the scene of its killing, and then I died. At the time, I was standing in the treetops, and even the closest corpse was over ten meters away from me, whereas Aunt was only separated from the Ghost by two rooms, less than 10 meters. She was far closer to the Ghost than I was."

"But why did I die on the spot, without even having time to react, while she had time to space out, freeze, be reminded by you, and then scramble to extinguish the Crystal Lamp?"

Ning Zhe's voice was not loud, but every syllable was articulated with absolute clarity: "The Ghost did not kill your mother immediately; why is that?"

Baizhi was silent for a moment before answering:

"Because the Ghost is afraid of light."

Ning Zhe was somewhat surprised: "Didn't you say before that the Ghost requires light as a prerequisite to kill?"

Why say now that the Ghost is afraid of light?