Pu Yuan and the others had been eating at Evermercy Restaurant for several days and were already quite familiar with Xu Youci.
They also knew that no one in town had been coming out lately, and the restaurant's workers had all gone home.
"Alright. By the way, Boss, we might need to take lunch and dinner back with us today. The others will come to pick it up then."
Xu Youci smiled like the Laughing Buddha. "No problem. Evermercy Restaurant always keeps its doors open. That is the rule. Just come whenever you need."
"The variety of dishes might be less than before, though. Since no one is going out, it is hard to restock."
As Xu Youci chattered and led Pu Yuan toward the kitchen, Jiang Ningning sat in the hall for a moment.
She felt a bit creeped out and decided to follow Pu Yuan.
"Waaah... waaah..."
Just as Jiang Ningning was about to move, she suddenly heard a faint crying sound coming from outside.
Her heart skipped a beat. That sound... it sounded like a child crying.
Yes, it was the sharp, continuous wailing of an infant.
Jiang Ningning hesitated for a moment, planning to pretend she hadn't heard anything, but the crying grew louder, enough to imagine the child's terror.
The horizon began to brighten, and the morning light gradually enveloped the town, revealing the true form of the bluestone alleys outside.
Jiang Ningning had good eyesight. Almost immediately, she spotted something placed at a corner about ten meters away from Evermercy Restaurant.
It was a...
Jiang Ningning narrowed her eyes. It was a swaddle!
There was indeed an infant inside, crying loudly, perhaps abandoned there.
Whether it was a woman's instinct or because the daylight made her less afraid, she hesitated for a moment before running out the door.
At that distance, she could run there and back in just a few minutes. Since it was so close and Pu Yuan and Xu Youci were right in the kitchen, nothing would happen.
Jiang Ningning rushed out of Evermercy Restaurant.
...
Nan Yue was leaning over to look into the well when she suddenly heard a child's voice very close to her.
It felt as if the voice were whispering right against her back.
Nan Yue's body moved faster than her thoughts, and she rolled over, pressing her back against the edge of the well to prevent whatever was behind her from catching her off guard.
She dodged to the open space by the well, crouching low with one knee on the ground and one hand braced against the earth, her hair falling on either side of her face.
Her long, raven-wing lashes hooded her dark eyes, but the sharp glint within them remained startlingly bright.
Nan Yue was like a graceful leopard, every muscle taut and ready to strike as she stared at the thing that had been standing behind her.
It was a small child, not very old, dressed in ordinary coarse cloth clothes. His tiny voice sounded eerie in the dim alleyway.
He tilted his head slightly toward Nan Yue. His hollow, dark eye sockets paired with his chubby face created a sense of grotesque horror.
"Why did you hide, Big Sister?"
Run!
Alarm bells rang in Nan Yue's head, and she bolted.
She had a map of the town in her mind and ran toward the old residence without a second thought.
In truth, the old residence might not even be safe, and Nan Yue didn't even know how she had triggered this child.
She was only certain that this child was not human.
The wind whistled past Nan Yue's ears, but her back grew colder and colder.
She glanced back and found the child following not far behind, smiling at her. Those empty sockets seemed to be staring intently.
"Hee hee hee..."
At Nan Yue's current speed, let alone a child, even an ordinary scavenger wouldn't be able to keep up. This thing was clearly toying with her.
Despair flickered in Nan Yue's heart. It seemed that encountering this child was almost a death sentence.
The ghost child hadn't appeared in the previous days; it had only shown up as the daylight grew shorter.
Now, she could only try to stall for time. Once it was fully light, the thing might disappear.
Nan Yue looked up at the sky, her heart sinking. At this rate, it would take at least twenty minutes for the sun to fully rise. But this thing...
As Nan Yue was thinking, she suddenly felt something extremely cold and soft grab her wrist.
She looked down to see a pale, tiny hand clutching her.
It didn't feel like a human hand; it felt as if there were no bones, only flesh, possessing an indescribable nausea and oiliness.
With a sudden, powerful tug, Nan Yue stumbled, forced to a dead stop.
Intense pain flared from her wrist. The ghost child stood there, looking up at her with a malicious smile, slowly but firmly pulling on Nan Yue's left arm.
It wanted to tear her arm off!
Nan Yue realized its intention almost instantly. Recalling He Hongyun's corpse, she finally understood what he had gone through.
The pain in her hand was excruciating. She could even feel the flesh and bone being torn apart bit by bit.
I'm going to die here.
A fierce sense of refusal erupted in Nan Yue's heart. She gritted her teeth and, instead of pulling away, lunged toward the ghost child.
Since the thing had already touched her, she might as well take a gamble and fight to the death.
At this moment, Nan Yue's anger outweighed her fear. In fact, she had never truly felt afraid.
Time seemed to slow down as she lunged. She saw the ghost child's smile widen and noticed the bloodshot veins in its eye sockets, the result of its eyeballs being gouged out.
Strangely, in the next second, Nan Yue saw the ghost child's expression freeze.
What happened to it?
It seemed... afraid?
Nan Yue noticed a faint black mist appearing on her body.
She didn't know where the mist came from, but the moment it touched the ghost child, the creature let out a piercing scream.
In the next instant, it released Nan Yue's hand without hesitation and vanished in a flash.
Nan Yue slumped to the ground, gasping for air. Her left wrist was dislocated. She gritted her teeth and snapped it back into place.
A dark, bruised handprint had appeared on her wrist. She moved her hand; it was painful, but it didn't hinder her movement.
After the brush with death, Nan Yue closed her eyes for a few seconds to calm herself, then opened them to examine her hand.
It was slender and strong. When she clenched her fist, she could see the firm muscles tensing beneath her fair skin. It looked no different than usual.
The black mist was gone.
If Nan Yue didn't have absolute confidence in herself, she would have thought she had hallucinated.
What was that thing? Did it come from within her own body?
For some reason, the black mist felt very familiar to Nan Yue, somewhat like the thing inside her.
Now that she had been delayed, the sky was beginning to brighten. Nan Yue was in no hurry to return.
She rubbed her wrist as she walked back toward the well.
If she wasn't mistaken, that little ghost had probably wanted to push her in?
There really was something inside the well.
By the time Nan Yue returned to the well, it was broad daylight. The ghost child was gone.
Although there was still no sound of people, the town no longer felt as eerie as before.
Nan Yue cautiously peered into the bottom of the well.
There was no water; it had long since dried up. But with the light, Nan Yue could see some marks at the bottom.
They looked like... countless footprints.
Rate on N.U.
