Chapter 106: The Apparition’s Appearance (1/2)

It was already getting dark, so it was about time to start preparing for our stay here at the mansion for the night. Xiaotao ordered the officers guarding the mansion to get us some food and drinks along with three sleeping bags. Then they could get off work for the day.

The mansion was completely isolated—there were no other buildings around it. Once the sun sank below the horizon, darkness descended on the area like a thick, heavy fog. It was a moonless night. Once every few minutes or so, the headlights of a car would flash across the road.

Once the police officers returned with our provisions for the night, we brought them up to the room where the dead bodies were found and laid out our sleeping bags there.

“Dude,” whined Dali with both of his hands hugging his shoulders, “are you sure we have to stay here the whole night?”

“How many times are you going to ask that question, idiot?” snapped Xiaotao. “I’m hungry! Let’s eat!”

She then proceeded to tear open the paper box containing the noodles, stirred it with a pair of chopsticks and tucked in. I took a bite off of a bun myself. Dali looked on and marveled, “How can you guys eat with such fervor as if two dead people weren’t found right here a few days ago?!”

We both shrugged.

The evening passed on quite uneventfully. In fact, we were even getting slightly bored as there was nothing to do in particular. We didn’t dare to play with our phones as we were worried the battery might run out on us—we’d have no way to contact the outside world then. Xiaotao was quite accustomed to this situation though because she was used to staying in the car for a few days continuously when she was on stakeouts.

When it was pretty late into the night, Dali suddenly said he needed to go to the toilet and insisted that I accompany him.

“Are you still a man?” Xiaotao laughed and jeered. “It’s right next to the room! Just go out the door and turn left.”

“Then… Then I’ll scream my lungs out so you’ll hear me if something happens!”

Once Dali left, I took out a mug from my backpack and handed it to Xiaotao.

“Here you go. To replace your favorite mug.”

Xiaotao smiled and shook her head, “Seriously! Can’t you just say that it’s a gift? But since you’re being so thoughtful, I’ll let it slide this time.”

She twisted open a bottle of cold green tea and poured it into the mug I just gave her and took a sip. Then she offered me the mug.

“I see you haven’t had a drink with your food yet. Drink this.”

I politely declined at first but she insisted, so I took the mug from her. As I drank the tea, I could taste the faint sweetness of Xiaotao’s lipstick and that made me blush again. But our little moment was short-lived as it was interrupted by Dali’s sudden scream. We both rushed out immediately.

When we got to the bathroom, we saw Dali staring at the toilet bowl with a sickly pale face. He told us that as he was just sitting down on the toilet seat, he felt a cold hand grabbing at his bare bottom. He sprang back up on his feet and screamed.

“You really are an idiot, aren’t you?” Xiaotao snorted.

“Jeez, have a bit of sympathy!” cried Dali. “I swear there really was a hand in there!”

I stared at the toilet.

“It’s probably a rat,” I commented. “Toilets and sewers are connected. This place had been unoccupied for a long time after all. Any rat could’ve climbed out of here easily.”

“No, dude, listen to me! It was clearly a hand that grabbed my ass!”

At that moment, we all heard the sound of a ball bouncing the floor downstairs and Dali shrieked in fear again. I was much more freaked out by his sudden scream than the weird noise downstairs.

“I-It’s the boy’s ghost!” stuttered Dali through chattering teeth.

I couldn’t quite make out where the sound was coming from. Sometimes it felt as if it was very close to us, yet sometimes it sounded like it was far away. It rang through the stillness of the abandoned mansion. I turned around and saw that even Xiaotao looked very pale indeed.

“Let’s go check it out,” I suggested.

“Do we have to?” asked Dali.

“Don’t worry,” I assured him. “A ghost isn’t the scariest thing in this kind of place—it’s your imagination!”

“But what if it really is a ghost?” asked Xiaotao with raised eyebrows.

“So what if it’s a ghost?” I answered. “A ghost is nothing more than residual spiritual energy left in the physical world. It’s no different from a video or a hologram. It can do no harm to us.”

Xiaotao went into the room to take the flashlight and we then went downstairs together. Well, I said together, but really, I was walking in front while Xiaotao and Dali trailed behind me, holding onto my clothes tightly. Dali had always been a coward, but I was quite surprised to see that even Xiaotao was acting so scared. When I asked her that, she pouted and argued that only lunatics like me wouldn’t be scared in a situation like this.