Hearing this, Uncle Gazi looked at me and said, “Girl, what nonsense are you talking about? Where would a clown even come from around here? You probably mistook some passerby. Don’t scare yourself.”
“No, no!” Han Xue spoke up before I could.
“If Chen Yang says it like that, then it makes sense! If we look at it that way, the figure we saw downstairs earlier also had a big mouth and a very pale face. Thinking about it now, it really did look a bit like a clown.”
Lili gave the two of us a strange look before saying, “But… how could there be someone dressed as a clown here? And wandering around in the middle of the night?”
Han Xue waved her hand to interrupt her. “Who said it was necessarily a person in a costume? Do you remember what happened with Aunt Qing? The way that person looked when they died—their face was all mottled and colorful—wasn’t it even uglier than a clown’s face?”
After hearing that, Lili seemed to recall the scene.
Her expression changed, and she shrank her shoulders slightly before turning to Suo Tian.
“Suo Tian, what do you think?”
Suo Tian patted my back and, after thinking for a moment, replied, “I don’t know.”
“If you ask me, this is a supernatural incident,” Han Xue continued.
“Those who died tragically or unjustly—if their resentment doesn’t dissipate, they’ll wander around places like this villa complex, looking for someone to take their place.”
As soon as she said that, the fear I had just managed to calm surged up again.
After struggling with my thoughts for a while, I finally couldn’t take it anymore.
I pushed Suo Tian back slightly, glared toward the window, and said, “Either way, it saw me tonight. If it’s looking for a substitute, I won’t be able to run. If it comes, I’ll fight it!”
“Chen Yang…” Han Xue looked at me worriedly.
“Or… maybe we should ask around and find someone who specializes in dealing with spirits—invite them to perform a ritual, do some rites, see if they can send them away?”
Her words caught me off guard.
Rituals?
These were things I had only ever seen in mystery and supernatural novels.
Hearing it said out loud by someone beside me felt surreal for a moment.
Suo Tian glanced at me and smiled faintly. “No need. We’ll be able to catch this ‘ghost’ tomorrow night.”
Xu Shu and the others soon finished checking the entire house.
Every flashlight in the house had been turned on.
When they all came back, more than a dozen beams lit up the room like daylight.
Han Xue and I sat on the bed, while Uncle Gazi and the others either stood or sat, filling up half the room.
When there are more people, courage naturally rises.
Looking at everyone gathered in the room, I even began to doubt whether what I had seen earlier had really happened—was it possible I had dreamed it and couldn’t tell illusion from reality?
After a long silence, Uncle Gazi spoke:
“Recently, there’s been trouble after trouble. When it comes to things involving ghosts, none of us can be sure. Even though Xiao Tian has spoken, we’re a big group, with many girls and children—most of us are easily frightened. So for now, let’s rearrange the sleeping arrangements—two people per room.”
“Two people per room?” Yangyang sounded reluctant.
It had taken him quite a while to finally get the chance to have a room to himself.
Shen Feng glanced at him and said, “It’s just for a couple of days. No matter what’s going on, at least this way we can look out for each other at night.”
“Then how do we divide it?” Taozi asked.
After thinking for a moment, Uncle Gazi replied, “You and Xiao Wen together. Chen girl and Xiao Tian—that goes without saying. Then… Han girl with Xiao Shu, Shen Feng with Jundi, and Yangyang with Xiaopu.”
After mentioning the last pair, Uncle Gazi seemed to remember something.
He glanced at Chen Pu and added in a low voice, “If Yangyang doesn’t want to share a room, it’s fine for him to stay alone.”
Yangyang waved his hand. “It’s fine. I’ll room with Xiaopu.”
Uncle Gazi looked at Chen Pu for a moment before saying, “You two seem to get along really well, like brothers. Xiao Pu… make sure you treat Yangyang well. Look out for each other.”
This final arrangement made me feel a bit uncomfortable.
But since Xu Shu was there, I couldn’t say anything more.
That last sentence of his was clearly meant as a reminder for Chen Pu to mind his behavior.
To others who didn’t know the situation, it might have sounded like an ordinary remark—but to those of us who understood, it carried a deeper meaning.
Uncle Gazi had, on his own, chosen to trust Chen Pu—and in a way, he was gently pushing Yangyang and Chen Pu together to reassure us.
Yangyang slung an arm over Chen Pu’s shoulder and said to Uncle Gazi, “This little brat—who’s he going to take care of? If we share a room, I might end up dressing him and putting his shoes on for him.”
Chen Pu immediately hooked an arm around Yangyang’s neck.
“What are you talking about? You think I’m like you?”
Xu Shu had been quietly watching my expression the whole time.
There was no helping it—even though I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the arrangement, I still pretended nothing was wrong as I looked at Yangyang and Chen Pu joking around.
But deep down, I couldn’t help wondering: would Chen Pu, because of some resentment toward me, take the opportunity to do something to Yangyang?
That thought immediately made me uneasy.
I quickly tried to think differently—he hadn’t caused any trouble for quite a while now.
Maybe he really did realize his mistakes and had turned over a new leaf.
Meanwhile, Lili, who had been left out, asked Uncle Gazi, “What about me?”
Uncle Gazi glanced at her and replied, “Tomorrow Xiao Hu will sleep with you. At night he keeps fooling around with Tingyun and refuses to go to sleep.”
With the arrangements settled for now, and after all the commotion, it was already close to dawn.
Seeing that nothing else was happening, everyone went back to their rooms to rest.
Shen Feng and Jundi stayed on the first floor to keep watch.
Suo Tian didn’t go down again—having him nearby made me feel much more at ease.
Not long after lying down, I fell asleep.
Although I had some unpleasant dreams, I still slept all the way until noon the next day.
Suo Tian had tried to wake me for breakfast, but I just couldn’t pull myself together, so I shamelessly pretended to be dead and didn’t move.
It wasn’t until noon that I finally woke up.
After washing up groggily, I went downstairs to find lunch already prepared, but Suo Tian was no longer in the house.
Rubbing my eyes, I drank a glass of water and asked Shen Feng, who was sitting on the sofa, “Where’s Suo Tian?”
Pointing outside, Shen Feng replied, “He just went out. Didn’t say where.”
“By himself?”
“Yeah. At first I thought it was something from headquarters, but when he went out, I saw he was just walking alone. Probably going somewhere nearby.”
I looked thoughtfully toward the door, then set down the cup and headed into the kitchen to check on lunch.
Time passed quickly, and soon it was evening again.
Because of what had happened the night before, I didn’t dare take a nap in the afternoon.
After taking a shower, I crawled into bed early—no way was I going to wander around the house in the middle of the night again.
Suo Tian sat on the sofa, occasionally glancing out the window.
When it was time to turn off the lights, he suddenly stood up, as if preparing to go out.
I had been drowsy, but the moment I saw him about to leave, all my sleepiness vanished.
I jumped out of bed and hurried after him.
When he reached the door, Suo Tian turned back to look at me, glanced me up and down, then pointed and said, “Go back and put on your shoes.”
“Huh?” I looked down at my bare feet, then quickly ran back to slip on my slippers before pattering after him.
Tonight, Zhou Wen and Taozi were supposed to be on watch.
But when we went downstairs, we saw that aside from Lili and the two children, everyone else was already gathered in the living room.
Suo Tian motioned for me to sit with them, then turned and headed toward the front door.
I was about to ask what he was going to do, but Xu Shu beside me stopped me, shaking her head.
Only then did I suddenly remember what Suo Tian had said the night before—that he would catch that “ghost” tonight.
At the thought of it, I shivered, anxiously watching as Suo Tian opened the door and went out.
Was he secretly some kind of exorcist too?
After he left, the room stayed quiet for a long time.
Then Shen Feng cleared his throat and said, “I suspect… all this talk about hauntings recently is actually caused by a person. I don’t know the purpose, but it’s definitely not something supernatural.”
Han Xue and I, the two eyewitnesses, immediately shot him sharp looks. “How can you be so sure?”
Shen Feng shrank back a bit and pointed toward the door where Suo Tian had gone out.
“If it really were some uncontrollable ghost or spirit targeting Chen Yang, do you think that guy out there would look like this right now? He doesn’t act without confidence. Judging by his expression, he clearly has this under control.”
Hearing that, Han Xue craned her neck to glance outside, smacked her lips at Shen Feng, and gave him a thumbs-up.
“You can actually read his facial expressions? Impressive.”
After she said that, everyone around—including Zhou Wen—nodded in agreement.
Outside, Suo Tian was pacing back and forth on the grass in front of the door.
Eventually, he stopped at the exact spot where the shadow had stood that night and stared straight toward us from outside.
Watching him through the glass, I couldn’t help but feel a bit pleased—if the one standing out there was Suo Tian, there was no way anyone would be scared.
He was way too handsome for that.
Before long, Suo Tian came back inside.
He signaled for us to stand in the blind spot behind the front door—somewhere not visible from the glass window.
Zhou Wen and Taozi lay down on the sofa within the visible range from outside, acting as bait, waiting for the target to take the trap.
The lights had been off for a while now, and everything outside had grown dark.
Under the moonlight, there was still just enough visibility.
Suo Tian stared intently out the window, while the rest of us huddled behind him like a bunch of chicks.
With so many people together, we weren’t really scared—if anything, it felt kind of thrilling.
Just as my thoughts started to wander, Suo Tian suddenly flung the door open and dashed outside.
Seeing him sprint toward the open intersection ahead, all of us froze for a moment before quickly snapping back to our senses and rushing out after him.
Taozi and Zhou Wen, who had been lying on the sofa as bait, were completely confused—they hadn’t seen anything at all.
Suo Tian was incredibly fast.
By the time we reached the intersection, he had already turned a corner and disappeared from sight.
We all looked around in different directions.
Then Shen Feng pointed toward the park where the earlier incident had happened and shouted, “Over there!”
Following his direction, we looked into the darkness.
Sure enough, two figures could be seen in the distance, one chasing the other.
The one behind was definitely Suo Tian.
The one in front—tall to an almost exaggerated degree—suddenly turned sharply to the right and vanished from view.
— The end of the Chapter–
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