Escaping death

Cold, devoid of emotion, as though he were facing a lifeless thing.

It was completely different from the ghosts he had encountered in the cinema. Back then, Qin Manjiang had still felt some... familiarity, some sense that those ghosts had once been human.

But the terrifying, pitch-black goat's head before him made goosebumps rise all over his body.

This was definitely not a being he could reach any mutual understanding with.

Time seemed to freeze at that moment. Qin Manjiang could smell death.

The goat's head was already right in front of him. The next time it flashed forward, he would die.

What could he do?

How could he break out of this death trap?

Could it... really be the light?

Was it just as Liu Jingqing had said? Could this pitch-black goat's head only move when it was dark?

No... the lights were all out now, but the goat's head hadn't kept flashing forward through the darkness.

It simply stared at Qin Manjiang, eerily motionless.

That meant darkness wasn't the necessary condition for its movement. It had to be something else...

What was it?

Qin Manjiang suddenly felt his eyes begin to sting. He was about to blink when a realization struck him!

He forcibly resisted the urge to blink and kept his eyes fixed on the goat's head.

Was this it?

He would test it first...

One second... two seconds... five seconds... ten seconds!

It wasn't moving. The goat's head before him really had stopped flashing forward!

Blinking was the key to this thing's movement! Thinking back carefully, Qin Manjiang realized it had deliberately appeared by the window to draw his gaze and establish a connection. Once the lights went out, whenever he blinked while looking at it, it could instantly flash a short distance closer.

It had all started because he had met its eyes...

Even though it had been far away, he had met its eyes the moment it appeared at the window.

Once Qin Manjiang figured this out, he didn't deliberately widen his eyes. That would only make them sting faster. Keeping his gaze on the terrifying goat's head less than two meters away, he slammed his body against the door.

"Writer Liu, come out! Hurry!"

Qin Manjiang had no intention of abandoning her and fleeing alone. After all, he had experienced both abandoning someone and being abandoned, and neither feeling sat well with him.

Bang!

The force of a grown man throwing himself against it finally paid off. The bathroom door opened.

Qin Manjiang couldn't look at Liu Jingqing to check her condition, but he could hear her. Even now, she was still murmuring:

"It came back for revenge..."

"Why... did they want to create a god..."

"Praying to a god... to make a wish..."

"Once the wish comes true... the vow must be fulfilled..."

"What wish did they make..."

Liu Jingqing seemed possessed, unable to hear anything happening around her.

Keeping his eyes on the goat's head, Qin Manjiang freed a hand and pulled Liu Jingqing out of the bathroom.

Fortunately, she was already fully dressed. Otherwise, that would have been another problem.

As they left the bathroom, Qin Manjiang covered Liu Jingqing's eyes.

The instant they stepped out, Liu Jingqing snapped out of her trance.

"Classmate... Qin? Is that you?" She struggled to break free of Qin Manjiang's hold.

Qin Manjiang kept her eyes covered. He was about half a head taller than her, so restraining the physically weak writer wasn't difficult, but he didn't want to use force.

"It's me. Please don't move, Ms. Liu. I can take my hand off your eyes, but you mustn't open them. There's a ghost two meters in front of us."

Qin Manjiang's description was plain and unembellished. To Liu Jingqing, his wording was far too bland, but what he actually said made her shudder.

A ghost... two meters in front of them?

She immediately stopped moving.

"Please keep your hand over my eyes!"

Writer Liu was very cooperative.

With one hand gripping her shoulder and the other covering her eyes, Qin Manjiang almost had an arm around her as he edged toward the living room, step by step.

His eyes were growing drier and drier. An ordinary person blinked about fifteen times a minute, but Qin Manjiang hadn't blinked in over three minutes.

His body's instincts made his eyelids desperate to close, but the reality of his situation forced him to suppress that impulse.

One step...

Two steps...

Three steps...

The two of them slowly backed toward the living room.

Qin Manjiang knew reaching the living room wouldn't necessarily make them safe. His shouts and the sounds of him slamming into the door had been extremely loud, yet none of the three sleeping people had woken up.

That wasn't normal.

One heavy sleeper was plausible. But all three sleeping this soundly, especially in a place like this, was absurd.

Liu Jingqing was extremely nervous too. Qin Manjiang could feel her trembling. Fortunately, she followed his instructions the entire time without asking pointless questions like why she had to keep her eyes closed.

Just then, Qin Manjiang sensed that his eyelids were about to give out...

He reached that conclusion calmly. His eyes were so dry and sore that he had no choice but to blink. Fortunately, they had already backed through the hallway and reached the living room.

Qin Manjiang tried pressing the light switch on the living room side. It was no use. The hallway light still wouldn't come on.

Although the goat's head hadn't moved, it was still there.

"Writer, I'm going to let go of you. Lower your head and slowly open your eyes. Take the High-Intensity Flashlight out of my backpack and hand it to me. Remember, don't look up."

Qin Manjiang spoke slowly, enunciating every word.

Hearing him, Liu Jingqing felt much calmer. She quickly nodded. "Okay, I understand."

"Good. Don't be afraid."

Qin Manjiang took his hand off her eyes.

Liu Jingqing could finally see that she had made it out of the bathroom and back to the living room, where everyone was sleeping.

The other three were still dead to the world, as though they couldn't hear a thing.

Following Qin Manjiang's instructions, she found the backpack he had been wearing all along and retrieved the High-Intensity Flashlight.

"Classmate Qin... here..."

She didn't dare look up. She could only feel around for Qin Manjiang's hand first, then place the High-Intensity Flashlight in it.

Once Qin Manjiang had a firm grip on it, his eyelids finally gave in and blinked!

The black goat's head vanished abruptly!

But in the next instant, as Qin Manjiang opened his eyes, the High-Intensity Flashlight came on!

The goat's head had barely appeared before him when it vanished into thin air!

Phew...

Qin Manjiang breathed a sigh of relief too, hurriedly blinking several more times to ease his eyes.

Liu Jingqing sat back on her heels on the floor and finally dared to look up at Qin Manjiang. Seeing his almost unchanged expression, she couldn't help asking, "Classmate Qin... are you all right?"

Somehow, this new player gave her an overwhelming sense of security.

What moved her most, though, was that Qin Manjiang had never once abandoned her to run away alone.

As soon as she asked the question, her voice woke the other three.

"What happened?" He Jian was on full alert the moment he opened his eyes. When he saw that Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing both looked a little exhausted, he grew even more wary and uncertain.

"A ghost was here just now."

Qin Manjiang kept it brief, but his words made the three who had been sleeping in the living room pale with shock.

There will be another chapter tonight, a bonus update for Borao's alliance leader donation. See you tonight!

(End of chapter)