Chapter 125: [Harboring a Ghostly Secret] Quest Progress
Pale yellow dodder vines silently climbed onto the table, coiling around the candle on it.
Bai Cha simultaneously struck a match.
After the candle was lit, the room regained its light.
Xu Shengsheng was huddled under the covers.
“Shengsheng?”
Bai Cha’s voice made Xu Shengsheng under the covers stir.
Then she emerged completely from the quilt, looking both surprised and happy, with tears in her eyes.
“Sister!!”
Suppressing the excitement in her chest, she jumped off the bed and hugged Bai Cha.
“Wow, you didn’t…”
“Shh!”
Bai Cha held the candle in one hand and gently patted her with the other.
After placing the candle firmly back on the table, she glanced at the open “Five-Three” practice book and the smudges of ink on it.
Xu Shengsheng cautiously approached her and pointed at the pen.
“It… it…”
She swallowed her saliva and quietly recounted the supernatural events she had encountered.
After writing the three characters for “Ji Xiaolan,” the pen wrote four more characters.
[Too late]
Then, the pen scribbled out all the words it had written.
After that, there was indeed no more movement.
But the wind came in and blew out the candle.
Xu Shengsheng was the type who wouldn’t think too much about things if she didn’t immediately realize what was happening. She could even do many bold things without realizing the implications.
However, once she understood, she would become increasingly scared the more she thought about it, and she would be the type to scare herself with her own imagination.
Almost the instant the candle went out, she imagined someone standing beside her, staring at her.
Even because there were occasional sounds of wind and other noises from outside.
These sounds were amplified, as if someone was lying prone by the door.
So she burrowed under the covers.
She had originally wanted to send a message to Bai Cha.
But she was afraid that the light from her phone screen would attract attention.
Bai Cha: “…”
Sigh.
She patted Xu Shengsheng’s head.
“What’s this? This hasn’t even started yet. What if later there really is someone staring at you? My previous instance was like that.”
Xu Shengsheng: QAQ.
“Then… what should I do?”
She had never really encountered such supernatural events before.
Although her aunt was quite superstitious and often took them to burn incense.
Especially when Bai Cha was often sick, during winter and summer vacations, her aunt would often take Bai Cha all over the place seeking health.
But before Xu Shengsheng entered the game, she had always scoffed at these things.
Especially when her own mother dragged her out early in the morning to burn incense, she was always annoyed. It was only five in the morning, and she wanted to sleep during her vacation.
So she would often say, “What’s the use? What’s there to believe in!”
Thank you, is it too late for her to believe in gods now?
Of course, it was obviously too late. She could only rely on herself.
Xu Shengsheng asked very earnestly for advice.
Bai Cha pondered.
“It’s normal to be scared.” It was a bit abnormal for someone like her not to be afraid.
Bai Cha first comforted her.
“But you can’t avoid facing something just because you’re scared. Scaring yourself is even more inadvisable. The game world has real ghosts and monsters. The more scared you are, the more opportunities you give them.”
Xu Shengsheng had a bitter face. She knew this, but she couldn’t control it.
Bai Cha naturally knew this, so she added, “First, try to build yourself up mentally. If it really doesn’t work…”
“Try chanting spells?”
Her aunt was quite superstitious and had taught Bai Cha many scriptures and incantations.
“The Great Compassion Mantra? I can’t learn that, it’s too difficult to pronounce,” Xu Shengsheng, also a victim, said.
“That probably won’t be of much use either. And haven’t you noticed that Aunt hasn’t listened to the Great Compassion Mantra in the past two years?”
“Oh, yeah… why? Did she find it useless? Are there ghosts in reality?”
Bai Cha: “No… I told her that the Great Compassion Mantra first attracts the ghosts and then tries to help them pass on. But we are just ordinary people and don’t have the ability to help them pass on.”
Xu Shengsheng: “…”
It sounded terrifying.
“You can chant the Six-Syllable Great Bright Mantra, that one’s simple… but never mind, in a game, chanting might attract something even worse.”
Bai Cha thought of the Buddha statue on her wrist and felt it was better to have less to do with these things.
“Let’s just stick to the Twenty-Four Character Core Socialist Values.”
Xu Shengsheng: “Is it useful?”
“Whether it’s useful or not depends on you.” Bai Cha placed both hands on her shoulders, looking seriously into her eyes.
“Belief is the greatest power!”
Xu Shengsheng was moved by her seriousness and nodded emphatically.
“Okay! I’ll try it next time!”
“The most important thing is to face things. Some things can’t be avoided.”
Xu Shengsheng nodded, seeing that Bai Cha had picked up the pen again.
Her body stiffened slightly, but she still carefully moved closer to Bai Cha.
Bai Cha naturally knew that this pen definitely had some issues. Something found in the car must have been left by a certain plot character.
But she had indeed deliberately ignored this information, wanting to see if Xu Shengsheng would take the initiative to ask.
If she didn’t ask, she wouldn’t say, letting her experience it herself.
Learning from a profound lesson was the fastest way to grow.
Of course, this was also because she knew her skills could save her life.
The pen felt cold in her hand, quiet and still.
“Sister, did you see anything? Is something attached to it?”
“I can’t communicate with spirits, how would I know?”
However, there was someone in this instance who could.
“Tomorrow, bring this pen with you to Ji Xiaolan’s house. If anyone asks you, don’t mention tonight’s events, just say you picked it up from the car.”
Xu Shengsheng nodded.
“Then, did you find any clues outside, Sister?”
“Yeah, some. I’ll write them down for you.”
Xu Shengsheng was actually a little apprehensive.
But she still obediently looked over.
“The grandmother is a spirit medium. She should know about ghosts and such. The reason I want you to hold the pen is so you can show it to her tomorrow. She will definitely have some reaction.”
Hearing this, Xu Shengsheng blinked, thinking of something.
“Then…” She looked at the pen, the desire to ask overcoming her discomfort, and she took the pen.
“Then the child in Ji Xiaolan’s belly, she knows about that too, right?”
Bai Cha nodded, looking at her with gentle encouragement.
“So, what possibilities do you think there are for the current situation?”
The exam section began again.
Xu Shengsheng thought seriously, slowly writing the answer on the paper.
“1. The grandmother isn’t a good person?”
“2. The grandmother can’t do anything about the child in her belly, so she decided to use us as sacrifices. That way, maybe she can protect Ji Xiaolan? I heard that when a ghost fetus is born, it eats its mother.”
A ghost fetus and a ghost infant were different.
In many TV dramas and novels, ghost infants were bound to their mothers, but ghost fetuses were not.
Bai Cha neither denied nor confirmed, she only told Xu Shengsheng the remaining information.
“So Ji Xiaolan is willing to get married, which means that the person is still someone she likes. But the person she likes is already dead, maybe even turned into a snake…”
Xu Shengsheng seemed thoughtful.
“But it feels a bit strange, I can’t quite put my finger on it.”
Bai Cha took the pen and wrote, “Because the grandmother does indeed love Ji Xiaolan. Why would she just watch her granddaughter marry a ghost?”
