Chapter 38

The man was another man, and I don't know why I felt the air around me drop a few degrees. I couldn't forget that night in the underground morgue, the hand that pressed against mine.

Even though it was through gloves, now when I think back, it felt cold and sharp like a knife. Then, the sticky sensation from the gloves, the half-coagulated blood.

It must have been him. My heart was not at ease, and my expression became more serious as I looked at Grandma Wen. Old Zhou didn't think too much about it, and I didn't tell him the details of my encounter with that man. But the next moment, Old Zhou's face also turned very pale because he wouldn't forget the mark he found on the body, the human bite mark.

However, recalling this, Grandma Wen's expression became abnormally fearful, and her voice became lower. She was an old woman who could 'see' and was supposed to be 'well-informed.' She was usually calm when talking about black gas and ghostly oppression, but her expression changed when she recalled that man.

"When I was oppressed, I eventually resigned myself to it, and it was worth it for my granddaughter. After that, when Yingying returned to school after her holiday, my condition gradually improved. Until the small holiday before she fell ill, it never happened again. During those few nights, I actually paid attention to see if those things were缠上Yingying again. Fortunately, Yingying seemed to sleep very soundly and there was no disturbance. I didn't notice much until later when Yingying was hospitalized, and I saw the marks on her pillow, clearly the traces of tears. It turned out that those few nights, she wasn't sleeping well at all; she was crying in her dreams every night." Grandma Wen's tone was filled with regret, and she couldn't help but digress.

But I didn't find the old lady's talk tedious; instead, I felt a sense of fear and a hint of a clue. It seemed that before Zhao Ying fell ill, she might have known something, but unfortunately, her soul couldn't convey the message to me and Old Zhou.

I noticed that in my limited interactions with Zhao Ying, I always had this feeling, as if she was being controlled. Otherwise, when she used the ghost wall to hint to Old Zhou and when she risked danger to warn me about Old Zhou's residual soul, and even in the end, she should have been controlled. I recalled the crowd of vengeful spirits.

I felt my scalp tingle. I believed there must be a secret in that specimen building, but could I bear to uncover it? I had my reasons for thinking this way, even though I wasn't yet sure of anything.

Thinking about this, I sighed. I realized the situation was far more complicated than I imagined. But, fortunately, what I and Old Zhou promised Zhao Ying was just to find him, and this 'him' should be the man who harmed her.

Thinking about this, the answer could only be one: a key man! The cat demon was an obvious existence, but the man behind the scenes was the key!

As I thought, my fingers began to tap the table lightly. In this room filled with yin energy, the eerie black mist and the image before the altar, accompanied by Grandma Wen's continued narration, created an indescribable rhythm, as if these rhythms formed a vortex, and I was completely pulled into it.

Grandma Wen's story was not complicated. The gist was that after she was no longer oppressed, she moved more freely at night. She saw that night by chance. As an old lady, she slept restlessly at night and had to get up. In such a messy alley, there was usually no toilet in the house.

The chamber pot she used for convenience, out of concern for her granddaughter, was placed in Zhao Ying's room. She said Zhao Ying was most afraid of getting up at night, especially after the holiday when she slept restlessly.

Grandma Wen was going to Zhao Ying's room to use the toilet. Zhao Ying's room was the small room at the end of the house. The room was small but had a window, which made it well-ventilated. This was the room Grandma Wen, out of concern for her granddaughter, let her live in.

At first, there was nothing unusual in the room. To avoid disturbing Zhao Ying's sleep, Grandma Wen didn't turn on the light, and it was a normal and habitual small matter. But that night, when Grandma Wen went to get the chamber pot under Zhao Ying's bed, she heard Zhao Ying's suppressed, whimpering cries.

The crying sounded ethereal, as if a soul had left the body and was crying, not the person. To put it simply, the crying sounded like a ghost.

Suddenly hearing such a sound, Grandma Wen was startled. Could it be that something unclean had缠上Zhao Ying again? In this shock, the chamber pot she had lifted fell to the ground with a clear 'clank,' but Zhao Ying still didn't wake up.

At this moment, Grandma Wen had already looked around the room and saw nothing unclean, but the crying continued, coming from her granddaughter's bed. Could it be that her granddaughter was really crying? Thinking this, Grandma Wen forgot about the toilet and quickly felt her way to Zhao Ying's side. With eyes already adapted to the darkness, she saw Zhao Ying's pale face, furrowed brows, and tightly clenched lips, her face shrunk into a ball, clearly in a state of extreme fright.

The 'whimpering' sound came from Zhao Ying's nasal passages. Touching Zhao Ying's face, it was covered in tears.

"Yingying!" Seeing her granddaughter in this state, Grandma Wen forgot her fear and called out to her with great concern. But the Zhao Ying in bed had no reaction, and instead, she suddenly grabbed Grandma Wen's hand!

This action startled Grandma Wen. After all, her crying granddaughter, still asleep, had grabbed her hand in a strange way, and those hands were cold.

"Cold like they had been soaked in ice, and I never knew Yingying had such strength. It felt like iron clamps grabbing my hand." Grandma Wen described the situation, and it was clear that the sudden action had frightened the old lady.

But because it was her beloved granddaughter, this courage sustained her. She described Zhao Ying's body temperature in this way, actually reluctant to say that Zhao Ying's hands were as cold as a corpse.

These small details showed how much the old lady loved Zhao Ying. As I listened to her story, my fingers continued to tap the table unconsciously. I could roughly judge that Zhao Ying's condition, with her body at that temperature, was definitely a sign of her soul leaving her body. At that time, Zhao Ying was in a state between life and death.

Her soul had left her body, but her vital energy was still in her body. Because she was still in the world of the living, her soul and body were closely connected. The soul being frightened directly affected her body, causing her to cry and tightly grab Grandma Wen, a natural instinct to find a relative to rely on in a state of fright.

As for the strength in her body, it was a burst of potential under the pressure of panic and fear. You can understand it as a person using all their strength to grab a 'lifeline.'

Grandma Wen's story continued. After Zhao Ying grabbed Grandma Wen, the crying finally changed from the ghost-like 'whimpering' to a more normal cry. She saw Zhao Ying struggling, and at this moment, Grandma Wen wanted to pinch her philtrum to help her wake up, but her hands were trapped and couldn't move.

At this moment, Grandma Wen described Zhao Ying as if she was trying to say something but couldn't. In her anxiety, she saw Zhao Ying struggling to lift her chin, pointing in a direction. Based on her understanding of her granddaughter and the strange connection between relatives, she felt that Zhao Ying was trying to guide her to something.

The answer lay in the direction Zhao Ying pointed, which was toward the window. Realizing this, Grandma Wen instinctively turned her head. Just one look, and Grandma Wen was almost unsteady on her feet.

Because she saw a figure standing outside the window, tightly pressed against it, looking into the room. In the darkness, although she couldn't see the person clearly, the outline of the figure was very clear.

This was already very frightening. Imagine a figure tightly pressed against your window at night, peering into your room. The window was supposed to be closed, but for some reason, it was half-open, and the curtain was pulled aside. The figure was pressed against the iron bars of the window, staring straight into the room.

"I couldn't see clearly, but I felt he was staring straight at us, his eyes shining, shining..." Grandma Wen's emotions were agitated, and I appropriately grabbed her hand.

Then I smiled at Grandma Wen and said, "It's okay, Grandma Wen. A living person is a living existence, and there's no need to be afraid. To put it bluntly, if it comes to it, we can fight, right?"

"That's right, that's how I thought! You can't imagine how scared I was. That person's eyes made me feel like he was greedy, greedy to devour our family's Zhao Ying, like a hungry wolf in the wild staring at its prey. Really, you two young people shouldn't think I'm exaggerating. I felt it that way. Seeing our family's Zhao Ying crying pitifully, I don't know where I got the courage to shout 'Who?' and suddenly break free from Yingying's hand. I was determined to find out what was going on, even if it meant risking my old life."

Grandma Wen was agitated, but I didn't doubt her determination at all.

I often hear on the mountain that the great way is无情, but why do human emotions often make people burst with extraordinary strength? Why do people often seem great and endearing because of their emotions? I still can't figure out the answer.

Looking at the determined Grandma Wen in front of me, I felt a bit lost.

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