"Trust me, both of them are ghosts—don't go over there!"
"Sister Cat, you have to think clearly! Zhang Lan and Huang Xing both got into trouble when they were with him!" Lao
The voices on both sides of the street were driving Sister Cat to the brink of madness—she was in absolute agony!
This wasn't simple fear. It was terror fused into the very marrow of her bones. Just thinking about it was torture.
"One side is heaven, the other is hell. Choose wrong, and it's eternal damnation."
She clenched her teeth, drawing on half a lifetime's worth of courage, and finally made her choice.
Perhaps because Lao Zhou talked more and had seemed friendlier, Sister Cat took a step toward him.
"You'll regret this." Bai Qiulin pulled back and moved away, as though he were about to flee on his own.
Seeing Bai Qiulin leave so decisively, Sister Cat's resolve wavered again.
"If he wanted to hurt me, he wouldn't have just run off like that. Did I really choose wrong?"
She looked at Lao Zhou and his wife, and suddenly remembered—when Huang Xing and Xiao Lan got into trouble, both Lao Zhou and Bai Qiulin had been present.
But later, when Ma Tian got into trouble, only Lao Zhou and his wife had been with him!
"I know now!"
Sister Cat broke into a cold sweat. She felt as though she had just taken a walk right outside the gates of hell.
"Wait!" Sister Cat ran toward Bai Qiulin of her own accord. "I'll go with you!"
"Now you believe me?" Bai Qiulin didn't turn around. His voice was cold and detached.
"I've always believed you!" Sister Cat pleaded desperately, trying to regain his trust.
Bai Qiulin slowed his pace but still didn't turn around. "Aren't you afraid I'm some homicidal maniac?"
"Stop talking—they're almost here!" Tears welled in Sister Cat's eyes. "I really do believe you. Take me with you. I was bewitched just now, that's why I hesitated."
"Bewitched?" Bai Qiulin stopped. Sister Cat had finally caught up to his side, and only then did he slowly turn around.
His neck was snapped, blood pouring from every orifice. His face was twisted into a grotesque grin of excitement. "You mean a ghost like me?"
Sister Cat's long-since hoarse throat let out a piercing scream. Her soul nearly fled her body, and instinct drove her to run back toward Lao Zhou.
"Help me! Help me! Please help me!"
Sister Cat charged toward Lao Zhou and
"I told you he was a ghost, but you wouldn't listen—hurry, come over here!" Lao Zhou and Duan Yue grabbed Sister Cat and ducked into a narrow alley beside them. They hadn't run far when Sister Cat saw the end of the alley—a wall.
"This is a dead end?!" She looked at Lao Zhou and Duan Yue beside her, her mouth having lost all ability to form words.
"Of course—otherwise why would they call it a dead end?" Lao Zhou's black shirt began seeping blood, blooming like clusters of crimson peonies. And Duan Yue was even more horrifying—her body was falling apart like building blocks, ready to crumble at any moment.
"I only said Bai Qiulin was a ghost. I never said I wasn't one too."
Her eyes rolled back into her head. Sister Cat suddenly felt that being scared into fainting was actually a blessing.
……
"Twenty minutes have passed. Time to put a little pressure on them."
Boss Chen decided to take matters into his own hands, but the moment he entered the village, several dark shadows flashed out from hiding and disappeared into his comic book.
"What does that mean?"