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

I couldn’t help but think to myself how cute Xiaotao was when she’s afraid!

The old staircase creaked with every step we took. Once we got downstairs, I looked around with the living room with the flashlight. It was empty.

“See? There’s nothing—”

Before I could finish my sentence, Xiaotao jumped in fright, saying something just touched her foot. We looked down and saw a ball.

She picked it up and cried, “But how could there be a ball here? We scoured the whole house the other day and it wasn’t here!”

“Th-Then it must be… ghosts!” Dali started to panic.

“Stop making this place scarier than it actually is!” I spat.

Just then, a door upstairs banged very loudly, followed by the sound of a woman laughing. Both Xiaotao and Dali screamed and jumped in fright as if they’d just stepped on a live electrical wire.

“Someone’s playing a trick on us!” I snapped angrily. “I’ll go upstairs and find out who they are!”

I rushed upstairs and found that a door that was originally closed was open. I walked into the room and shone the flashlight all around it. I heard a sound above my head—it sounded like something was climbing down from the ceiling. Then a voice whispered in my ear, “He killed my son! He deserved to die! He killed… my son!”

It sounded like someone was whispering right next to my ear, but I couldn’t feel any breath at all. That gave me chills all over my body.

Earlier that day, I had asked Dali to bring me a bag of salt. It could be used to exorcise evil spirits. I was about to turn around and go grab the salt, but I felt a hand pressing on my shoulder, and out of the corner of my eye I could almost see a ghastly face slowly inching towards me!

I froze and didn’t dare to look back. I knew that ghosts liked to creep up on people from behind. If I turned back now, all of my courage would leave me. So, I yelled out, “You’re already dead. There’s no point in lingering in the world of the living. It’s time for you to pass on to the next world!”

The hand on my shoulder loosened its grip, then gradually disappeared. Evil spirits were known to prey upon weak-willed people. As long as you’re not afraid of them, they wouldn’t dare to approach you again!

At that moment, my phone rang. I knew it was Xiaotao because I had set a special ringtone just for her number. I instantly questioned why she had to call me when she was just downstairs. Did something happen to her?

Immediately after the phone rang, I heard the sound of a ball bouncing on the floor again. Did that little ghost reappear?

I almost flew downstairs in haste, only to see Dali bouncing a ball.

“You idiot!” I shouted. “What’s wrong with you? This isn’t the time to be playing with the ball!”

“One two, buckle my shoe, three four, close the door…” Dali completely ignored me and went on bouncing the ball while singing the rhyme. I was taken aback by this reaction. What had gotten into him?

He had a strange expression on his face. He was pouting and was on the verge of tears, but his eyes seemed to try to point me towards a certain direction.

“Song Yang! Song Yang!” A soft voice was calling me. I turned around. It was Xiaotao who was shivering and cowering behind a pillar.

I was about to approach her, but Dali suddenly grabbed my sleeve and shook his head frantically. I looked back at Xiaotao. What was Dali trying to tell me? Was that not the real Xiaotao but a ghost impersonating her? No, I couldn’t believe that ghosts had such powers.

In an urgent voice, Xiaotao warned me, “He’s not Wang Dali right now. Stay away from him!”

I shook off Dali’s hand. He went back to bouncing the ball but I could see that he was almost bursting into tears. He then whispered to me, “There’s a woman behind Xiaotao-jiejie. Can’t you see?”

Once he told me that, I could really see a faint figure of a woman wearing a white flowing dress behind Xiaotao. Her long hair was wild and unruly and her cheeks were covered with caked bloodstains. She was holding a bloody dagger against Xiaotao’s neck, but Xiaotao herself was unaware of it.

It all became clear to me now—the ghost was holding Xiaotao as hostage to force Dali to act as her son!

“I raise cup of wine to the heavens!” I began to chant. “In the name of the celestial gods, begone evil spirit! In the name of Magistrate Song, let the light of his wisdom illuminate the darkness and wash away injustices!”

Xiaotao and Dali were visibly shocked. They must’ve thought that I was possessed by a ghost! I marched up towards Xiaotao, pointed at the ghost, and yelled, “I am a descendant of the Song family! Evil spirit begone!”

“Aaaahhh!”

The ghost screamed and disappeared like a puff of smoke.

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