Very quickly, more than a dozen people burst out of the thick white fog in a panic.
At the very front were Ke Xinyi, Ning Qian, and Li Yinuo—the trio of girls. Behind them were a few young tourists, and farther back were several classmates Lu Jiuling wasn’t very familiar with.
The moment Ke Xinyi saw Lu Jiuling and the others, she shouted, “Run! There’s a ghost!”
“Is it the female ghost in a qipao?”
Xu Shaowei hurriedly pressed her.
“Yeah, that thing grabs people!”
Ning Qian was panting heavily. “Its tongue is like a hanged ghost’s—it can stretch more than ten meters. I saw a female tourist get wrapped around the neck by that thing’s tongue with my own eyes, then dragged into the fog!”
“She’s definitely dead!”
Ning Qian’s voice was filled with terror.
“Why are you wasting time talking? Run!”
Li Yinuo urged them on, her steps never slowing. But as she ran past Lu Jiuling, he grabbed her by the arm.
“What are you doing?”
Li Yinuo was angry. She instinctively yanked her arm, trying to shake off Lu Jiuling’s hand.
“Why are you running this way?”
Lu Jiuling realized something was wrong. “Trying to get out?”
“Obviously. Are we supposed to stay and wait to die?”
Li Yinuo snapped irritably.
“But this is the road deeper into the mansion!”
Xu Shaowei frowned tightly. “The direction you came from is the way out!”
“Huh?”
Ke Xinyi and Ning Qian were dumbfounded.
“Impossible!”
Li Yinuo shook her head. “The moment we ran into that ghost thing, we immediately turned around and ran back the way we came!”
“Then why did you show up here?”
Xu Shaowei retorted. “You panicked and took the wrong road, didn’t you?”
“Are you kidding?”
Li Yinuo insisted, “It’s not like I have no sense of direction!”
“We probably didn’t get it wrong, right?”
Ke Xinyi looked at Ning Qian. She was no longer certain.
“Fuck, could this be a ghost wall?”
Jia Mingqiao thought of a possibility.
“Can you stop jinxing us?”
Ning Qian was so frightened she cried, wiping her tears with the back of her hand.
“Miss, are you sure the direction we came from is the way out?”
A young man in a plaid shirt held his girlfriend’s hand and anxiously asked Xu Shaowei.
“I…”
Xu Shaowei was rendered speechless. She looked toward Jiang Shan. She didn’t dare be certain and wanted to hear this top student’s opinion.
“I’m sure!”
Jiang Shan had been dialing nonstop, trying to call for help, but her phone didn’t have even a single bar of signal. “Do your phones have signal?”
“No!”
Li Jiayao had also been trying to send messages on WeChat.
“Mine doesn’t either!”
Feng Xiu looked at the notification saying the message had failed to send, so angry she wanted to smash her phone.
“We’ve definitely run into something unclean!”
Jia Mingqiao felt numb all over.
“Did we really run the wrong way?”
Ning Qian looked at Li Yinuo. Earlier, she had been the one charging ahead the fastest, and everyone else had followed her.
“How would I know?”
Li Yinuo snapped irritably. “Are you blaming me?”
“That’s not what I meant!”
Ning Qian hurriedly waved her hands.
“Stop arguing. Hurry up and think of a way out!”
Xu Shaowei had the air of a commander and naturally took on the role of leading big sister. “Xu Shuo, Jia Mingqiao, you two run in front!”
“Why should we?”
Jia Mingqiao was unhappy.
“…”
Xu Shuo was so angry he almost laughed. At a time like this, you’re still looking out for Lu Jiuling?
“Aren’t you the class monitor? Shouldn’t you serve everyone a little? Stop dawdling, hurry up!”
In Xu Shaowei’s heart, there was indeed the tiniest bit of intent to look after Lu Jiuling. After all, whoever led the way had the greatest chance of running into something unclean.
“The class monitor is responsible for school matters. This isn’t under my jurisdiction now!”
Xu Shuo refused.
Do you think I’m stupid?
Forget Xu Shaowei—even if Jiang Shan spoke up, Xu Shuo would never stick his neck out under such eerie circumstances!
“A class group activity isn’t under your jurisdiction?”
Xu Shaowei hadn’t expected Xu Shuo to be so selfish.
Xu Shuo didn’t want to argue with Xu Shaowei, so he went straight for Lu Jiuling. “Weren’t you pretty brave this morning? You even dared to talk back to Zhang Shuai, didn’t you?”
“Don’t embarrass yourself. Go!”
“690, you’re not chickening out, are you?”
Jia Mingqiao provoked him.
“We’re done for!”
Jiang Shan was depressed.
She knew Xu Shuo couldn’t be relied on, but she hadn’t expected him to be this completely useless.
Looks like they could only save themselves.
Jiang Shan was just about to steel herself and set off when Lu Jiuling’s calm voice sounded beside her ear.
“This way!”
After observing the surrounding environment, Lu Jiuling began running toward the red ball of light that had risen earlier.
“Brother 69!”
Tang Lei was startled. Don’t try to play the hero—you’ll get yourself killed.
“Student Lu!”
The baby-faced girl was worried and didn’t want Lu Jiuling to take risks.
“…”
Xu Shaowei had initially thought Lu Jiuling had been goaded by Xu Shuo and Jia Mingqiao, but the moment she saw his face…
Calm. Steady. Not the slightest emotional fluctuation. As if he had spent ten years killing fish at RT-Mart.
Already as still as an ancient well.
Even if the one lying on the chopping board were a voluptuous mermaid, Xu Shaowei felt Lu Jiuling wouldn’t show any mercy. He’d scrape every last scale clean.
Oh my God!
Why did he suddenly seem to have the aura of a handsome, ascetic type?
Xu Shaowei’s little heart began pounding faster.
Once again, she felt the same flutter in her chest as when she had first met Lu Jiuling.
“…”
Jiang Shan looked surprised.
She hadn’t expected Lu Jiuling to actually take the initiative.
Quite bold!
But why run forward?
“690, are you stupid? You’re still running forward?”
Xu Shuo started spraying insults. Seeing that Lu Jiuling had really taken the lead to clear the way, he became displeased again. Didn’t this make him look cowardly? Like he had no sense of responsibility?
“We only entered this mansion fifteen minutes ago. We haven’t gone far, and the terrain isn’t complicated. How could Li Yinuo, Ning Qian, and the others possibly get lost?”
Lu Jiuling explained, “So going back the way we came most likely won’t get us out!”
“Could it really be a ghost wall?”
Feng Xiu was afraid.
“I don’t know whether it’s a ghost wall or not, but under this thick fog, if we want to get out, we have to find the right path!”
Lu Jiuling speculated that they would only be able to leave this mansion alive after containing the taboo object radiating this contamination.
“And going forward is the right path?”
Xu Shuo pressed him. “What’s your basis?”
“My guess!”
Lu Jiuling was concise.
“You’re trying to get us killed?”
Xu Shuo was almost choked speechless by Lu Jiuling.
“You’re going near that red ball of light?”
Jiang Shan guessed.
She realized Lu Jiuling had remained calm from beginning to end, thinking of a way to break the situation. His performance far exceeded that of his peers.
“That’s right!”
Lu Jiuling glanced at Jiang Shan. “When the thick fog rose, the original lights were dimming, and some even went out completely. Instead, these red balls of light appeared. If we go over and take a look, we might find clues for getting out!”
“What if that light was made by something unclean?”
Jia Mingqiao was worried.
“Then we can only call ourselves unlucky!”
Lu Jiuling’s steps didn’t hesitate in the slightest. “You don’t think we can get out without taking any risks, do you?”
“Let’s go!”
Jiang Shan pulled the baby-faced girl along and followed closely behind Lu Jiuling.
“Keep up! Keep up!”
Xu Shaowei urged.
One more person meant one more bit of strength.
“Yinuo, Qianqian, I suddenly realized 690 looks so handsome with that cold, detached expression!”
Ke Xinyi exclaimed.
Was this really that invisible nobody from their class?
If you’d been like this earlier, I definitely would’ve chased after you myself.
“Xu Shuo always acts like a class officer, meddling in everything. But when it’s actually time for him to contribute, he drops a huge load!”
Li Yinuo complained, looking down on Xu Shuo.
“Phew!”
Ning Qian and Feng Xiu both let out sighs of relief and were no longer quite so panicked.
At a time like this, someone had to step forward. Regardless of whether Lu Jiuling’s choice was right or wrong, at least he was standing at the very front, shielding everyone from the wind and rain.
The group hurried toward the red ball of light floating in midair.
No one knew whether this action had angered those unclean things, but the indistinct ghostly shadows grew more numerous.
Suddenly, one of the shadows opened its mouth wide. Like a frog catching prey, a tongue as thick as a baby’s arm shot out from its mouth, crossing more than twenty meters with a snap and wrapping precisely around the neck of the young man in the plaid shirt.
Thud!
The young man was yanked to the ground and dragged toward the thick fog.
“Help…”
The young man cried out in panic. His girlfriend didn’t even look back and bolted even faster.
This time, no one needed to urge them. Everyone quickened their pace. Xu Shuo and Jia Mingqiao rushed to just behind Lu Jiuling.
Very soon, the crowd ran beneath the red ball of light.
Only after getting closer did everyone realize that this ball of light was actually a red lantern, with a red “Double Happiness” character pasted on it, quietly suspended beneath the eaves.
With ghostly shadows surrounding them on all sides, no one felt the slightest festivity upon seeing this lantern pasted with the “Double Happiness” character. Instead, they found it eerie.
“What now?”
Xu Shaowei saw more red balls of light appearing around them. Clearly, more large wedding lanterns had been lit and hung up.
Then who had done it?
And what was the purpose of hanging these lanterns?
Was someone getting married?
The girls looked toward Lu Jiuling. His performance just now had made everyone regard him as their backbone.
They were now at an octagonal pavilion. To the right was a small grove of emerald-green bamboo.
Lu Jiuling rushed over, drew the Buddha Gut Sword, and with several swishes, chopped down a few stalks of bamboo.
“You’re trying to make bamboo spears? To stab those unclean things to death?”
Feng Xiu’s eyes lit up.
“With bamboo this thin, who could you stab to death?”
Xu Shuo looked at the bamboo, only as thick as an index finger, and felt Lu Jiuling was indulging in fantasy.
Lu Jiuling was wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt underneath. He tore a strip of cloth from the hem, bundled together several pieces of bamboo cut to one-meter lengths, then took a vocabulary notebook out of his backpack. “Jia Mingqiao, lend me your lighter!”
“I don’t smoke. Where would I get a lighter?”
Jia Mingqiao looked awkward. He didn’t want the girls to know he smoked.
“Stop pretending. Hurry up!”
Lu Jiuling urged him.
He still knew which people in the class smoked.
Seeing there was no way to dodge it, Jia Mingqiao took out his lighter and handed it over.
Lu Jiuling lit the vocabulary notebook. Once the flames grew, he held the bundled bamboo over to try to set it alight.
“You’re making a torch?”
Xu Shaowei understood what Lu Jiuling wanted to do and hurriedly bundled the remaining bamboo together as well, making another torch.
“Is that really necessary?”
Xu Shuo thought making torches was pointless. They might as well hurry up and run.
The night, together with the thick fog, had darkened the surroundings, but the red lanterns gradually floating up had illuminated the mansion again. Seeing the road clearly wasn’t a problem.
“You didn’t notice those unclean things are afraid of firelight?”
Lu Jiuling asked in return.
“Huh?”
Xu Shuo froze, turning his head to observe. “How can you tell?”