Chapter 26

A middle-aged man, whose face could not be seen, sat stiffly at the head of Yang Jian's bed. He raised his hand to hold the first newspaper, motionless, as if he were really reading the news on it.

Everything seemed normal, with nothing strange about it.

However, the dimness of the room was not suitable for reading the newspaper at all.

Moreover, this person had maintained this posture from the moment Yang Jian went online until now, never changing. This was something an ordinary person could never do.

The only change was that this person had moved from the sofa in the living room to the head of the bed in the room.

Just a change in position.

From a distance to closer.

This narrowing of distance did not bring a sense of security, but rather an inexplicable threat and fear.

Why was his father sitting next to him reading the newspaper?

Did he have this habit before?

Looking at the portrait hanging on the cabinet in the room, listening to Liu Xiaoyu's urgent urging on the phone.

Yang Jian realized that something was very wrong.

If what Liu Xiaoyu said was true, then was this person still his father?

It seemed like... but it also seemed not.

Did his father really die in a car accident when he was a child?

Yang Jian's mind clearly believed that the person in front of him was his father, everything seemed so natural, with no hint of falsehood.

"Even so, something is still very wrong..."

Yang Jian immediately withdrew his hand, not trying to pull away the newspaper blocking this person, but instead immediately picked up his phone, stood up abruptly, and moved backward.

Trying to stay as far away from the man reading the newspaper as possible.

Was it that his memory had been affected by something, causing problems?

Or was everything he was seeing just a dream, not real?

Or was there something strange about the entire apartment building?

"Whatever it is, I need to leave here first, and then figure out what's going on." Yang Jian couldn't be sure if the problem was with him, his father, or the surroundings.

He carefully retreated from the room to the living room.

Without disturbing the father reading the newspaper.

As he was about to leave the room, he tried out of curiosity to see this person's face.

However, before Yang Jian could see clearly, he noticed that the corner of the newspaper was covered in a deep red, as if stained with blood. The intense redness seemed to be about to drip down.

A newspaper soaked in blood!

Would a normal person read such a newspaper?

Yang Jian's eyes narrowed, and at that moment, he completely believed that what Liu Xiaoyu said was true. His father had indeed died in a car accident when he was in elementary school. The file she mentioned was real, so the so-called father in front of him could not possibly exist, because the dead do not come back to life.

If his father did not exist, then the man sitting on the bed reading the newspaper could only be one thing... a ghost.

At that moment, his heart trembled.

When?

When did this ghost sneak into the house, when did it appear in the room, and when was his memory altered?

Or had he been living with this ghost for years?

If it weren't for Liu Xiaoyu's call, would he have never realized the truth?

Thinking about it carefully, Yang Jian felt a chill run down his spine.

Just as he stepped out of the room.

The man reading the newspaper suddenly moved, his head turning at an eerie speed to face Yang Jian.

Immediately, Yang Jian took several steps back in fright.

This man... had no face, no features, just a layer of flesh.

"Go."

Yang Jian growled in his heart and turned to flee without a word.

He was now certain.

This man was a ghost.

However, the moment he turned, his vision went dark, as if he had hit something.

A newspaper...

Sticky, foul-smelling, as if soaked in thick blood.

The newspaper stuck to his face and immediately adhered tightly. He instinctively tried to tear it off, but the blood-soaked newspaper seemed to have become part of his skin. Every pull caused intense pain on his face, and it was not easily torn away.

"Is this ghost attacking me?" Yang Jian immediately realized this.

He had already been attacked by evil spirits twice at school.

"The only thing that can deal with a ghost is another ghost..."

He gritted his teeth, and suddenly an eye burst through the skin on his hand, emitting a faint red glow.

With this eye, his hand was able to tear the newspaper off his face.

The newspaper gradually detached from his face, like a bandage being slowly peeled off.

However, at that moment.

The ghost did not seem willing to let him go so easily.

Yang Jian felt the ghost approaching, as if pulling the newspaper from behind.

A terrifying force came.

The newspaper on his face tightened again, sticking firmly to his face, and a strong sense of suffocation and dizziness quickly spread.

If this continued, he would be suffocated to death by this eerie newspaper, even if the ghost didn't kill him.

"Since you want to play, I'll play with you. You're a ghost, but I'm not human." Yang Jian let out a low, animal-like growl from his throat.

Suddenly, two red eyes appeared on his face.

The newspaper where the eyes grew immediately made a tearing sound and was torn apart.

The moment the newspaper was torn, the terrifying pulling force behind it immediately decreased.

"Again." Yang Jian clenched his teeth.

The power of these eyes could not be used excessively; each use brought him closer to death. But in the current situation, he had no choice. Without using the power of the ghost inside him, he would die now.

Another eye appeared on his forehead.

"Rip!"

The blood-soaked newspaper on his forehead was torn apart again.

The pulling force behind him became lighter, and the suffocation and dizziness quickly subsided.

"Continue."

Yang Jian knew that the power of the ghost inside him was not yet sufficient.

A fifth eye appeared on his neck.

The newspaper around his neck split open again.

At this moment, Yang Jian used his hand to tear the newspaper on his face, which was instantly shredded due to the many tears.

The suffocation and oppression completely disappeared.

Large gulps of air rushed in.

Yang Jian's face now had four eyes, each emitting a faint red glow.

He turned around.

Behind him, there was no one, only the blood-soaked, shredded newspaper on the floor.

"Leave here."

Yang Jian, feeling a chill, did not dare to stay any longer. He quickly left the house without taking anything, opening the door and rushing out.

Not long after he left.

A person walked out of the room he had just been in.

This person picked up the shredded newspaper on the floor and pieced it back together.

Soon, the newspaper returned to its original state, still stained with fresh blood. However, on the red newspaper, there was now an outline of a face.

The face was... Yang Jian's.

This person picked up the newspaper and, as if nothing had happened, walked to the sofa, sat down, and raised his arm to continue reading the newspaper, just as before.

Several hours later.

Suddenly, this person moved.

He slowly lowered his arm, and he was no longer faceless, featureless.

At this moment, he had Yang Jian's face.

However, on this "Yang Jian's" face, the places where the eyes had grown were now blank, as if parts of a clear photograph had been forcibly cut out.

The face was not perfect...