There was no way Suo Tian would agree to let me stay downstairs with him to keep watch.
After we all lingered downstairs for a bit longer, we had no choice but to head back to our rooms.
Han Xue had calmed down somewhat, but there was no way she was going back to her room alone—she clung tightly to Lili and Xu Shu, refusing to let go, and practically dragged them back into her room.
I followed along too, joking and chatting with them to help distract Han Xue… alright, fine—I was also too scared to go back to my own room alone.
They say if you’ve done nothing wrong, you won’t fear ghosts knocking at your door in the middle of the night.
Unfortunately, I’ve done my fair share of guilty things… so that saying only made it even scarier when applied to me.
The four of us curled up on the bed with our knees pulled in, chatting about our thoughts and feelings.
Before long, we were all yawning nonstop—even Han Xue started nodding off.
With a heavy nasal tone, Lili stretched and said, “Let’s all go back and sleep. It’s already the middle of the night.”
Han Xue, who had been dozing off, suddenly snapped awake and looked at us. “You’re all leaving? Going back?”
Xu Shu and Lili had already stood up.
Hearing her, they glanced at her and replied, “What else? Are we supposed to stay here and sleep with you?”
Han Xue pursed her lips and looked at them as they walked toward the door, still unwilling to give up. “You’re really leaving?”
Xu Shu opened the door and walked out with Lili, tossing back, “You think we’re pretending?”
Seeing the two of them leave, I stretched and patted Han Xue on the shoulder.
“Alright, I’m going to sleep too.” As I got off the bed, for some reason I turned back and pointed at the full-length mirror facing the bed.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you—according to unreliable but widely circulated claims, mirrors are yin in nature. Having one directly facing the bed isn’t good… it makes it easy to see—”
Before I could finish, Han Xue glanced at the mirror, then suddenly leapt off the bed and rushed toward the door even faster than I did, saying at the same time, “I’m sleeping in your room.”
……
It’s said that if a person is overly excited during the day or experiences excessive mental stimulation, they’re likely to grind their teeth at night.
This rule was clearly demonstrated in Han Xue.
At first, I drifted off into a hazy sleep, but before long, I heard a gnawing, creaking sound beside my ear—like a mouse chewing on something.
Half-asleep, thinking it might be a mouse, I reached out beside me, mumbling for Suo Tian to hurry up and throw a knife to deal with it so it would stop making noise.
But when my hand touched something soft, my mind snapped awake—Suo Tian wasn’t the one sleeping beside me!
I shot upright in bed.
The creaking sound was still going, but now I realized it was coming from Han Xue’s side.
I listened carefully, and my face immediately darkened—this girl was grinding her teeth!!!
I pinched her cheek, trying to stop it, but she only frowned and turned her face slightly when I touched her.
As soon as I let go, she continued.
I considered waking her up, but then thought better of it—she had just calmed down.
Waking her in the middle of the night and scaring her again would only make things worse.
Falling back asleep was basically impossible.
After tucking the blanket around Han Xue, I got out of bed, drank a glass of water, then opened the door, intending to go downstairs and check on Suo Tian.
But when I opened the door and saw the pitch-black hallway outside and the dark, hollow stairwell, I swallowed hard… then closed the door again and went back inside.
I sat on the sofa for a while, listening to Han Xue’s grinding teeth—it was unbearably irritating.
I went to the bathroom to wash my face, but as I did, my thoughts suddenly drifted to a horror story I had once read.
It was about a girl living alone.
One night, while washing her face in front of the mirror, she glanced at her reflection… and as she kept looking, the reflection suddenly grinned—but she herself hadn’t smiled at all!
Goosebumps instantly spread all over my body.
I was bent over washing my face, but now I didn’t dare straighten up—because the moment I stood upright, I would be facing that large mirror directly…
All at once, every tiny sound around me seemed amplified.
No matter what it was, after listening closely, it felt like it could be connected to the ominous signs of something supernatural appearing.
Gradually, I even started to feel like maybe, at this very moment, something in the cabinet outside, under the bed, or inside the mirror above was beginning to change… as if something was preparing to break free from the darkness and emerge…
“Pale face… a big pale face…”
Han Xue’s earlier words echoed over and over in my mind.
I squeezed my eyes shut, took two deep breaths, then clenched my teeth and suddenly stood up, opening my eyes to look straight at myself in the mirror.
To hell with that damn Kayako!
I stared at my reflection, heart pounding, goosebumps rising layer upon layer across my skin.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that in the next second, the pale, frightened version of myself in the mirror would suddenly curl its lips into a sinister grin.
I fled back to the bedroom as if escaping for my life, scrambling inside and stopping abruptly in the darkness.
I stood there stiffly, staring at the large lump on the bed.
Even though I knew it was Han Xue, my mind kept spinning out of control—was it really her?
Could it be that while I was in the bathroom washing my face, something had replaced her?
Was it hiding under the blanket, waiting for me to come closer?
With that thought, my feet instinctively took a step back…
But behind me was the pitch-black bathroom.
For a moment, I felt like I was about to lose my mind.
I grabbed my hair hard, took a couple of deep breaths, then quickly stepped forward and yanked the blanket up in one motion.
Finally, I let out a breath of relief.
Han Xue was curled up, sleeping soundly.
At least she wasn’t grinding her teeth anymore.
But after all that, there was no way I could fall asleep again.
I had to admit, the human brain’s ability to generate fear on its own was terrifying—if these thoughts were turned into a horror movie, they’d be ten thousand times scarier than Kayako.
I sighed and got up, standing by the window to get some cool air and clear my muddled head.
As I opened the window, I even wondered whether someone might be crouching just below it outside.
I knocked on my hopeless head, took a deep breath, and stretched hard, just about to reassure myself—there’s no such thing as ghosts in this world… it’s all—
Before I could finish the thought, I froze mid-stretch, eyes fixed on the scene outside the window.
Our room had a large window.
These villas were probably designed for better lighting, so all the rooms had huge south-facing windows.
From the third floor, you could see the intersections in the distance.
The moonlight wasn’t very bright, but it was enough to make out the general scene outside.
Far away, at the intersection… there was a “person” wearing garishly colorful clothes, with a deathly pale face and a bright red mouth stretched all the way to its ears—hopping, one jump at a time, toward our house.
When I realized what I was seeing, I clamped my hand tightly over my mouth, staring unblinking at the thing moving through the night.
The blood in my body froze once again.
Everything before my eyes felt like a silent movie playing out in the dark.
That thing made no sound as it moved, yet not long after I noticed it, it suddenly stopped…
After standing still for a moment, it abruptly lifted its head and looked straight at me!
Pitch-black eyes—no whites at all!!!!!
I finally couldn’t hold it in anymore. “Ah!”
I screamed at the top of my lungs.
That thing was down there, looking at me… it was looking right at me…
I don’t know how long I screamed.
Suddenly, hurried footsteps came from downstairs.
Along with Han Xue’s groggy voice as she woke up, I collapsed onto the floor, my whole body trembling uncontrollably.
There’s a ghost… there’s a ghost…
When Han Xue got out of bed and came over to support me, Suo Tian had already burst through the door.
He strode over, pulled me into his arms, and pressed my head against his chest, then asked Han Xue, “What happened?”
Still half-asleep, Han Xue grabbed my hand and looked at me worriedly.
Then she shook her head at Suo Tian. “I don’t know… I was just asleep…”
At that point, her expression suddenly changed.
The color drained from her face as she stared at me and asked in a trembling voice:
“…Y-you… you saw it too?”
As soon as she finished speaking, she turned her head in panic, scanning the entire room.
“Is it in here? In this room?”
By this point, Uncle Gazi and the others had all rushed in as well.
Being woken up twice in one night by screams had put everyone on edge.
Even Zhou Wen and Shen Feng, after hearing Han Xue’s words, took Yangyang, Jundi, and Xu Shu to check each room one by one.
I clung tightly to Suo Tian.
As soon as I managed to speak, I trembled and pointed outside the window.
“Out… outside… on the road… it saw me… it saw me watching it…”
After hearing this, Han Xue collapsed to the floor as well.
Lili and Uncle Gazi quickly stepped forward to help her up.
Meanwhile, Chen Pu walked to the window and looked outside for a moment, then turned to me and asked, “Are you sure you weren’t seeing things? There’s no one out there.”
“No! I wasn’t imagining it… I really saw it… it was wearing a clown outfit…”
As soon as I said that, I froze myself.
Uncle Gazi, Lili, and the others all turned to look at me. “A clown outfit?”
Earlier, I had been too terrified to think clearly, but now that I reconsidered—those garish, colorful clothes the thing was wearing… weren’t they exactly a clown’s outfit?
And that horrifying face… even in the darkness, it had been so clearly visible…
A clown!
I suddenly turned back to everyone. “It was a clown! Just now, out on the road… there was a clown!”
As soon as the words left my mouth, everyone’s expressions grew even more grim.
— The end of the Chapter–
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