His palm pressed against his forehead, Chen Ge held his position, waiting a full minute before he dared to look behind him.
The shadow had already returned to normal, as if everything that had just happened had never occurred at all.
Chen Ge didn't let his guard down. He tried calling out Zhang Ya's name a few more times, and only after confirming that she had fallen back into slumber did his heart finally settle back down.
He collapsed onto the ground as though his body had given out entirely.
Stars lit up the night sky, and Chen Ge wasn't even sure what he was thinking about.
After a short while, the white cat came trotting over, its furry paw resting on Chen Ge's forehead as if checking whether he'd gone cold.
"You sure ran fast earlier. What happened to 'life and death together'?"
His heart was still pounding like mad. Chen Ge felt like he'd overexerted his brain tonight and was now running a bit low on oxygen.
The white cat's mismatched eyes held a hint of disdain, as if saying, If you're so capable, why don't you stand up and talk?
Chen Ge ruffled the cat's head, pretending not to notice its expression. Lying on the ground, he pulled out the Black Phone and opened the unread messages.
"Fortunate Ghost Favorer! Congratulations on completing the Nightmare Difficulty daily task! Task reward — Beginner Talent Skill: Ghost Ear."
"Ghost Ear: Before you inherit this talent, I hope you'll think it through. From this moment on, you will be able to hear the voices of another world."
The message was short. After reading it, Chen Ge touched his ears, feeling as though nothing had changed.
He closed his eyes, focused his attention, and listened intently.
Someone was whispering deep inside the tunnel. Something was crawling through the undergrowth. Even from over a dozen meters away, he could hear it with perfect clarity.
"Something's coming." Chen Ge noticed that the crawling sound from the bushes was slowly drawing closer. He opened his eyes and activated the Yin Eye to look in the direction of the noise.
About eight or nine meters away, something resembling a human figure lay hidden in the bushes. It wore a tattered jacket, its head cocked at a crooked angle aimed right at Chen Ge, as if preparing to ambush him.
"It's you!"
When Chen Ge had been riding in the taxi, he'd spotted what looked like a person lying in the middle of the road. As the car passed, that thing had bolted into the nearby undergrowth at terrifying speed.
The monster crouching in the distance hadn't expected Chen Ge's ears to be so sharp. Even approaching from behind, it had been detected.
It retreated without hesitation, its body folding like it had no bones at all, fleeing at extraordinary speed.
"What the hell was that thing?"
Chen Ge pulled himself off the ground. He wasn't sure whether the monster that had just fled was the same one he'd encountered before.
"Their existence must be connected to this strange tunnel."
He brushed the dust off his clothes and decided to leave first. "Once Zhang Ya wakes up, I'll bring all my employees and come back here for a thorough search. Maybe I'll even get to meet more like-minded friends. When that time comes, I'll invite them over to my haunted house as guests."
Cradling the white cat, Chen Ge walked along the road toward the outside.
"You've gotten heavy again, haven't you? Next time you bite me, try to be gentler. It's bleeding, and I don't even know if I need a rabies shot…"
He walked along the road for a full thirty minutes without seeing a single car pass by. The place was truly desolate.
Just before four o'clock, a moving company's truck finally drove past Chen Ge. It was heading toward the Jiujiang city center. Seeing that it was going his way, Chen Ge immediately started waving and shouting for help.