Chapter 555 (1/2)

A man lay under his quilt, his eyes shut tight. The only movements came from the occasional twisting of his eyebrows, the only sounds coming from his rapid and restless breathing.

The rain outside pitter-pattered on the window and cracks of lightning could be seen jumping between the high-rise buildings. Peals of thunder cracked from the faraway skies, but they boomed in people’s ears as though they descended from right above their heads.

Under the cracking thunder, the man suddenly woke up. He was swallowing very hard to help his dry throat. In a flash of lightning, the touch of panic in his eyes quickly faded as his breathing pattern also slowly calmed down.

“That nightmare again…” Pressing the dry lips, the man reached out his hand to touch the white bedside cabinet, which had a cup of cold boiled water he poured last night.

“Crack!”

It was another thunderclap, rumbling above the roof.

The man’s hand instinctively trembled and knocked over the cup by accident. The cup rolled to the edge of the bedside table and fell to the floor with a sharp crack. A cup of cold boiled water was spilled everywhere. The residual water flowed along with the edge of the table down to the floor, making quiet tapping noises.

“s.h.i.+t!”

The man cursed irritably, lifted the quilt, found the slippers with help of the flash from the lightning outside. Moving against the wall, he walked out of the bedroom, crossed the living room and walked into the bathroom.

After feeling around for the switch on the bathroom wall, the man switched on the light. Then he switched on the tab, put his both hands closer, waited until the water filled his hands and quickly washed his face with the cold water. After rubbing his face with the cold water a few times, his rapid heartbeats gradually slowed down.

Raising his head, he looked at himself in the mirror and said, “Chu Yunsheng, the senior pract.i.tioner said that Tian Gui has not recovered. So don’t panic, and don’t scare yourself!”

He swallowed another mouthful of nonexistent saliva, filled a hand full of water and prepared to pour it on his face again. Just as he lowered his head, another lightning crack opened in the sky, then the corner of his eyes glimpsed a shadow suddenly flashed across the living room in the mirror.

“WHO IS IT?!”

Chu Yunsheng suddenly turned his head, with his both eyes nervously glancing around. His right hand quietly extended to the back of the bathroom door, grabbed the mop and quickly held it before his body.

The light of the living room was switched not on, so the light of the bathroom made his shadow seem unusually long. It was looming with the lightning outside, seemingly ghastly and hair-raising.

And in every lightning, the living room wall, which he could see from the bathroom, was lit up. The shadows of the table and chairs, especially the fridge would also appear and disappear with the lighting, each time, its shape, and length would be different, and shaking in a strange pattern.

Chu Yunsheng took a deep breath, as his nerve was stretched to the limit. Tightly holding the mop while leaning on the wall, he carefully moved out of the bathroom. As soon as he walked out of the bathroom, he instantly lifted the mop and held it firmly before him.

“WHO IS IT!?”

There was no other sound apart from thunder.

Chu Yunsheng slowly moved to the left side to get near the light switch, while his eyes were still staring at all the dark rooms, including the bedroom he had just walked out as if there would be someone rushed out at any time.

His left hand groped around the wall, turned on the light, and then the living room was quickly lit up.

Nothing.

Chu Yunsheng heaved a sigh of relief and wondered if it was a hallucination.

At this moment, the sound of someone walking on the floor with slippers appeared from upstairs, after a short while, the toilet above appeared a sound of someone flus.h.i.+ng the toilet.

Chu Yunsheng’s tense nerve finally became loose a little, and he also restored a little courage. With a mop as a weapon, he first checked the kitchen. After he came out of the kitchen, the mop was already changed to a kitchen knife. Then he began to check every room and every corner, including the wardrobe in the corner of the bedroom and the balcony.

Still nothing!

Chu Yunsheng laughed at himself. Since when did he become this timid? Why was he scared by some lightning?

The sense of security, which was brought by light, eased Chu Yunsheng’s tense nerve even more. He returned to the bathroom with the kitchen knife and put it on the washbasin. After closing the tap, he subconsciously looked at the mirror again.

“Ah! ～”

Chu Yunsheng screamed in fear, moved backward a few steps, and hit the tile wall of the bathroom as his chest was moving up and down rapidly.

He stared at the b.l.o.o.d.y face in the mirror in horror. It was his own face! Both of his eyes in the mirror were full of scary hatred and despair. His body and his face were covered with red blood and big scars.

“Clang!”

The kitchen knife fell to the floor, making a clatter of noises.

Chu Yunsheng instinctively looked at the kitchen knife on the ground, but quickly looked back at the mirror again. Strangely, this time, inside the mirror, it just displayed his terrified look, there was no blood and scars at all.

“It’s okay! It’s okay! It is just an Illusion, illusion… ”

Chu Yunsheng’s heart was still thumping rapidly. Pressing his chest, he was panting heavily, as he flurried out of the bathroom. This time, he did not dare to switch off the light anymore. He just hurriedly turned on the TV and the laptop.

He needed noises. He needed to calm down.

…

…

“That’s right, It only costs 988 Chinese Yuan! Only 988 Chinese Yuan! You can have a European pure handcraft gold watch that tens and thousands of people want to have! What are you waiting for?? Pick up the phone and order it now!”

Chu Yunsheng’s head was still in a muddle. He needed something to divert his attention. This commercial was definitely not going to work. Therefore, he quickly switched to another channel.

“Wukong… Sister-in-law, you look so beautiful, sister-in-law, don’t go! …”

Chu Yunsheng cursed and quickly switched the channel again.

“I want to save Qingchuan. Do you know what Qingchuan means to me? Without Qingchuan, what is the purpose of my life?”

“… The eighth prince! The eighth prince”

‘f.u.c.k…’ Chu Yunsheng did not hesitate to press the remote control again. But this time it was even worse.

“The bathing pharmacy, the conscience medicine, the… ”

However, Chu Yunsheng did not change the channel this time. While switching the channel, he was already slightly distracted. Now that he had restored his composure slightly, he lit a cigarette and sat on the sofa. And because he was fully awake now, he also did not want to go back to his room anymore.

It seemed that recently he was really too nervous, and he even started to have illusions.

In terms of that shadow, if he remembered it correctly when he was young, he often felt that there was a dark human shadow behind him. Later after he lived in the school dormitory and heard many ghost stories, he simply regarded it as Diplopia.

But that b.l.o.o.d.y face…

Perhaps he had been watching too many American movies recently.

Chu Yunsheng blew out a cloud of smoke and tried to come up with a possible explanation.