Lightning split the night sky, and that fleeting flash of illumination made the heads at the window look even more terrifying.
Several slender arms reached through the window frame, and at a glance the sight was nothing but fingers — deeply unnerving.
At this critical moment, with the tension stretched to its breaking point, Chen Ge was thinking about something else entirely.
"That woman's face bears some resemblance to the spider monster Fan Yu sketched. She looks young — she fits every single one of the criteria about Sister Jiang Ling."
The roof beam creaked. The wooden wall groaned under the strain and seemed on the verge of collapse. Chen Ge felt the entire cabin shuddering.
The silk threads were closing in. The woman's head squeezed through into the room: "Save me, please save me!"
"I came here to save you!" Chen Ge didn't dare wait any longer, afraid the situation would spiral out of control. He gripped the Skull Crusher Hammer and shouted.
The woman seemed to have never heard that answer before. She fell silent and continued pushing her way inside.
Blood-red silk clung to the walls, and the woman's face grew more and more grotesque.
"You're Jiang Ling's sister — we've met before, at night!"
The woman heard him and showed no reaction, as though she didn't understand a word he was saying.
"Jiujiang Children's Welfare Institute! Do you remember?"
Chen Ge was almost about to shout Xu Yin's name when something suddenly came to mind. He reached into his coat and pulled out a plastic bottle.
"Your sister gave this to me!"
Inside the bottle was a flattened spider. When he'd left the Jiujiang welfare institute, Jiang Ling had gifted him this spider's corpse.
The cabin gradually stopped shaking. The woman's eyes, nothing but whites, stared fixedly at the plastic bottle. She stopped trying to break through the window, and after staring at Chen Ge for a moment, she thrust her head all the way in.
The woman's neck was pale and smooth, almost seductive — except it was twice the length of a normal person's.
Chen Ge unscrewed the cap and extended the plastic bottle toward her in one hand. The terrifying creature finally calmed down. She closed her mouth and seemed lost in thought.
"I have no ill intentions toward you. I just think you and your sister are both pitiable, which is why I came to help." Chen Ge quietly turned off the tape recorder. "Your sister told me a great deal. I understand your situation and I know your pain. Strictly speaking, we're actually cut from the same cloth — I've been through an equally harrowing, despairing experience."
Chen Ge had said these same words to Xu Yin before, and they had been tested in real combat.
He himself was never skilled at handling interpersonal relationships. The only thing he could do was put himself in the other person's shoes, consider things from their perspective.
A man and a ghost faced each other through a single wall, big eyes staring into small ones, and the atmosphere grew increasingly eerie.
"I will clear your injustice. I will look after your young family!"
"Think about it — I waded through the rain alone in the dead of night and ventured into these mountains. Why?"
"Because I simply wanted to fulfill your sister's wish and help you in your suffering!"