Chapter 117 Hibiscus Emerges from the Water
Chapter 117 Hibiscus Emerges from the Water
Under the ginkgo tree with burning heart fire, Ji Taiyu, with bite wounds all over his body, stood beside the land temple, silently watching the impostor who was not sure whether he was a human or a ghost walking further and further away holding his sister's hand.
My sister looked very happy, and the guy who pretended to be her seemed to be quite good at fooling people.
"What does that thing want to do? What does he intend to do with my sister?" Ji Taiyu glanced at his grandmother who was kneeling in front of the land temple and kowtowing like crazy. He hesitated a little, wondering whether to follow the impostor who took his sister away.
Ji Taixuan had no idea what state he was in right now. Be it his grandparents, other people in the village, or even the 'thing' that had impersonated him, it seemed that no one was aware of his existence.
He felt that he was a bit like the wandering ghost in folk tales after the death of a person. But if he was a ghost, then what was the thing that replaced him?
And the woman in red who just appeared under the ginkgo tree...
Ji Taixu swallowed silently, but there was a big hole in his throat and he could no longer swallow. The empty and weird feeling made him look around. Since he crawled out of the coffin after his "death", the Yanglao Village in Ji Taixu's eyes had completely changed.
He followed the impostor, who was not sure whether he was a human or a ghost, all the way from his grandmother's house to the land temple. He saw people coming and going on the empty streets, and strange-looking "people" wandering in front of and behind the houses in Yanglao Village, but neither his grandpa nor his grandmother seemed to be able to see those "people", just like they could not see themselves.
The state of those 'people' is difficult to describe, or it would be more appropriate to call them 'ghosts'.
Ji Taiyu raised his head slightly and watched Ning Zhe and Yin Lishang walking farther and farther away. He could see four strange ghosts following closely behind them, but the two seemed to be unaware of it. They just kept walking forward while chatting and laughing.
There are four ghosts following Ning Zhe:
One is an old ghost, with a mouth full of rotten teeth, a big smile on his face, holding a human skull in his left hand.
One was a skinny ghost, tall and thin like a straw, holding a human leg pole in each hand.
One is a fat ghost, with a wide face and a big belly, holding a human heart and lungs in his right hand.
One was a hunchbacked ghost, very young, carrying a large bag on his back filled with human bones, which he chewed with a crunching sound.
In fact, there were originally five ghost shadows, and one of them was a human bone snake with Grandma Wang’s head, which was the one that bit Ji Taixuan to death last night.
But just now, the impostor did something unknown, and a young girl in a red wedding dress suddenly appeared under the ginkgo tree. She had no facial features on her snow-white face, and a almanac in her delicate hands.
Just like a big fish floating up from a bottomless pool, the woman in red appeared in front of the land temple and gently opened the almanac in her hand.
At the same time, Ji Taiyu saw the human bone snake that had been following the counterfeit suddenly light up its eyes, and pounced on her madly, opening her black mouth with few good teeth, and was about to tear off a few pieces of delicate flesh from the fair and tender girl... But the next moment, Grandma Wang screamed and disappeared.
It all happened so fast that Ji Taiyu could only vaguely see 'himself' holding his grandmother. The figure became blurry for a moment and then returned to its original state. When he focused again, he saw the human bone snake that had slipped off the woman in the wedding dress and was lying on the ground struggling in pain.
'Grandma Wang' died.
"That fake guy...he killed Grandma Wang? Is he capable of dealing with these ghosts?"
The horrifying scene he witnessed made Ji Taixuan even more cautious. The counterfeit couldn’t see ghosts, but could he kill them?
If I were to expose myself, would he be able to kill me as well?
What on earth is that woman in red? Is she also a ghost?
Completely different from the peaceful and quiet little village seen by normal living people like Ning Zhe and Feng Yusu, in Ji Taixuan's eyes, Yanglao Village was filled with all kinds of strange ghosts or weirdos. Those weirdos did not hurt him and seemed to have no interest in him, but they would be attracted and follow the few living people in the village but did nothing.
While Ji Taiyu was hesitating, Ning Zhe had already walked far away with Yin Lishang. He hesitated again and again, and finally did not follow.
Although his mother asked him to go back home and take good care of his sister in the letter, Ji Taiyu's intuition told him that the man was dangerous, very, very dangerous. "I have to find a way to remind grandma... That man is not me, he is a fake." Ji Taiyu gritted his teeth secretly. He had tried to smash the bowls in the cabinet before, but it didn't work. What method could he use to reliably remind his family without being noticed by the fake ghost?
It takes time to think about this problem, but Ning Zhe did not give him that time.
Not long after Ning Zhe took Yin Lishang away, several vague and erratic ghostly shadows suddenly appeared in the alley across the street from the land temple.
The ghosts in the village will be attracted to people, and the gathering of ghosts means there are people. Ji Taixuan went forward to take a look, and found that there was indeed a stranger hiding in the alley. She was a dignified lady as beautiful as a lotus emerging from the water, wearing a crimson purple dress, expensive jewelry, and exquisite hair.
Ji Taixuan had seen this person before, on the bus on the way here.
"is her?"
She came to the village too? ...That's right, when I was on the bus, I heard this woman tell the conductor that she was going to Yanglao. She was going to come here anyway.
The lady carefully put the phone back into her pocket, wrapped her legs with her long skirt and sat on the pile of firewood against the wall. Then, a black shadow quickly rushed out from under her feet.
Ji Taiyu's eyesight was not fast enough to catch the speed of the shadow's movement. He subconsciously turned his head in the direction of the shadow's movement, only to see his grandmother, who was kneeling in front of the land temple, stiffen her body and collapse to the ground.
His grandmother died.
Shock immediately filled Ji Taiyu's brain, but an even more terrifying scene followed.
After killing the grandmother, the woman took out her cell phone again, pursed her lips and began to type on the screen. There was an expression of excitement and expectation on her face, as if she was asking for credit from someone. After getting the praise she wanted, her bright face blossomed into a moving smile, and she hurriedly trotted out of the alley where she was hiding.
Ji Taiyu did not chase after her. Only his grandmother's body lay quietly in front of the land temple. The fire in the heart of the ginkgo tree was still burning, and July in Yunzhou exuded a scorching heat.
Crackling - crackling - was the sound of burning wood. Time passed by without any concept of it, until the corpse lying on the ground slowly moved. Ji Taixuan finally confirmed the guess in his mind.
I saw that the chest of the corpse in front of the land temple kept rising and falling, as if there were restless hands pushing inside the chest cavity trying to break out of the shell.
Ji Taiyu plucked up his courage and walked forward, staring at his grandmother's body struggling and twisting like a live snake. The flesh on her neck was stretched, torn, and broken in the violent struggle. Lymphatic tissue and blood vessels were dragged under the broken surface of her neck, and snow-white joints protruded from her chest cavity.
Ribs crawled out of the chest cavity one by one, claws and teeth bared, the bloody snake tail swayed gently, and a kind smile appeared on the wrinkled old face:
"My dear grandson..."
(End of this chapter)