The filthy hair swayed in the sinister wind, and a grinding sound of bone on bone emanated from the woman's throat. She moved with terrifying speed—by the time Chen Ge opened his mouth, her body was already pressing down on him.
Judging from the female ghost's reaction, she had no interest in listening to what Chen Ge had to say.
"It's been a long time since I felt this way." Cold sweat poured down his back ceaselessly, like dancing on the edge of a cliff. Chen Ge pressed his back flat against the sofa, his hands gripping the armrests.
"I don't mean any offense—I came here because I need to figure something out! A few years ago, a tenant in this room was haunted by a vicious ghost. You showed up and warned him at the time. Now his life is in danger. If I can't find out the reason, he probably won't live much longer!"
Anyone else who had come in his place would have been babbling incoherently, screaming their lungs out, or simply suffered a complete mental breakdown. But Chen Ge was different. In the shortest time possible, he poured out everything he needed to say.
The female ghost stopped advancing. Chen Ge let out a breath of relief and tried to shift into a more comfortable position, but the moment he turned his neck, he saw a child standing right beside him.
The child's skin was an unhealthy grayish-white. Its spine was broken, its head dangling against its chest, its eyes rolled upward as it stared straight at Chen Ge.
"Is this your child? What a cute little guy..." Chen Ge forced a grin. He knew that Jia Ming didn't hold much weight in the hearts of the old house's ghosts, so after a brief hesitation, he immediately added: "That tenant was my best friend. He once told me that the happiest period of his life was spent in this old house. The landlady treated him wonderfully, and he treasured those memories. But recently he's become a completely different person—he keeps saying that only by destroying everything beautiful can he fully control himself. I thought he was joking at first, but it turns out something is truly wrong with his mind. Last night, if I hadn't called the police to stop him, he would have shown up here at our old house with a knife!"
Sandwiched between two ghosts, Chen Ge had no idea what he was even saying anymore. The important thing was to pin everything on Jia Ming.
The ghosts in the old house had surely seen the shadow before. Chen Ge felt that what he was saying should jog their memories of those events from years ago.
He didn't need to directly convince the ghosts in the old house—he just needed them to give him a chance to speak. As long as they didn't kill him on the spot, the rest would be manageable.
"I don't believe my friend would do something like this, but I have to tell you that the landlady is in grave danger. The monster inside my friend wants to kill her!" The more Chen Ge spoke, the more agitated he became, and gradually the fear began to ebb away. "The old lady is a good person. A good person shouldn't be hurt!"
To the ghosts in the old house, Jia Ming was just a passerby. But the old lady was different—she was family.
After Chen Ge finished, the child standing beside him turned its head to look at the female ghost.
Its features were so distorted that Chen Ge couldn't read anything on the female ghost's face.
His brain raced at full speed. Drawing on his extensive past experience, he mentally simulated three different plans. But just as he was about to put another scheme into action, the female ghost and the child suddenly retreated to opposite sides.
The door was opened from outside. An elderly woman in her seventies or eighties stood there holding a key, muttering to herself: "Qianqian? Are you back?"
The old woman's face was covered in wrinkles, and she peered inside with a hint of expectation—only to lock eyes with Chen Ge, sprawled across the sofa.
"Please let me explain!" Chen Ge scrambled to his feet and hurried toward the old woman, but at that exact moment, someone grabbed the back of his pants.
He twisted his head to look behind him. The child was hiding behind the sofa, reaching out and clutching his leg. Its eerie head swayed from side to side, as if warning Chen Ge not to reveal the existence of either itself or the female ghost.
"Don't worry."