Chapter 295: [Unswerving Devotion] Eerie Shadow
Bai Cha tilted her head slightly.
The light outside was extremely dim, suggesting no lamps had been lit.
The footsteps were very light, and soon a pair of embroidered shoes appeared in Bai Cha’s view.
Red ones, embroidered with Biyi birds on top.
The hem of the dress was light blue, a color that looked somewhat like Biyun’s clothing.
She hadn’t paid particular attention to the patterns on her shoes before, probably because the skirt was too long, draping all the way over her insteps, making it hard to see the patterns clearly without looking closely.
However, if memory served her right, the color of her shoes was definitely not red.
Biyun stood by the bedside.
Her coming in was fairly normal; Bai Cha didn’t know how long she had slept, but with trouble brewing outside again, it made sense for the maid to check on Xu Taotao.
Except that Biyun’s identity had a slight issue.
Bai Cha was already hyper-vigilant, ready to use her final Flower of Lies at a moment’s notice.
Biyun just stood there awkwardly, doing who knows what.
Bai Cha kept virtually motionless, her breathing kept very, very faint.
After about two or three minutes, when Bai Cha’s body was already feeling extremely stiff, Biyun suddenly moved.
She bent straight down, looking under the bed with an uncanny smile fixed on her face.
“Miss, so you are down here?”
With such an abrupt face looming close, Bai Cha’s expression didn’t change in the slightest as she stared at Biyun without an ounce of emotion.
Biyun had already extended her hand toward the underside of the bed.
Only then did Bai Cha notice that her nails had been painted red at some unknown point—blood-red, and exceedingly long.
Just as Bai Cha’s hand behind her back grabbed a piece of junk from under the bed, intending to throw it over, an object came crashing down from above first, striking Biyun right on the body.
It was a ceramic pillow.
The ceramic pillow shattered completely, and Biyun was knocked to the ground by the impact, her entire cervical spine seemingly snapped.
Xu Taotao had struck hard, and she was left with lingering fear herself, her heart pounding violently.
Yet Biyun didn’t die from this; instead, she struggled on the ground, attempting to rise in an extraordinarily contorted posture.
Xu Taotao leaped off the bed almost instantly, ignoring the black spells in her vision caused by standing up too fast, snatched the stool from before the dressing mirror, and smashed it down hard on Biyun once more.
Bai Cha seized this window of opportunity to crawl out from under the bed as well.
Having been struck twice in succession, Biyun’s body was still moving. The stool landed on Bai Cha’s side, and Bai Cha picked it up, smashing it down fiercely as well.
Not until Biyun remained completely motionless.
And from start to finish, Biyun hadn’t uttered a single shriek.
She collapsed on the floor in a bizarre posture, staring with eyes wide open.
This didn’t look like dying; it looked far more like turning entirely into a mess of a monster.
Xu Taotao was trembling; she was terrified.
When Biyun walked to her bedside, she had sensed it, but she hadn’t dared to wake up at the time because she felt the other party was looking at her almost flush against her face.
Xu Taotao didn’t know if Biyun had realized she was awake then; she had originally intended to feign sleep until Biyun left, only to hear the rustle of Biyun’s clothing after a agonizing wait.
That face had clearly moved away from her.
Yet she said, Miss, so you are down here, so Xu Taotao opened her eyes immediately, discovering that she was indeed looking under the bed.
Without a second thought, Xu Taotao had taken action.
However, after taking action and seeing Biyun in such an eerie posture, Xu Taotao began to feel lingering terror.
Bai Cha cast a frowning glance at Biyun, stepping forward to take Xu Taotao by the hand.
Xu Taotao looked at her with a touch of panic and unease.
“What do we do? I killed someone…”
And her personal maid at that.
For Xu Taotao, the shock of this was perhaps even greater than seeing a monster.
“She might not be human,” Bai Cha stated. “Does she usually wear red fingernails?”
Refraining from comforting Xu Taotao and asking a question directly instead allowed Xu Taotao to calm down fast far better than comfort could.
Looking down at Biyun’s fingers, those red-painted nails were long and sharp—this couldn’t possibly be a maid’s hand.
No matter how you looked at it, a maid needed to do work; what work could be done with nails this long?
Moreover, that red was so vivid, so vivid it was almost like blood.
“No, she couldn’t possibly have such long nails usually—even my nails couldn’t be this long.”
The Xu family was merely well-off; she didn’t need to do heavy labor, but she still had to learn to do certain chores to make it convenient to marry in the future.
Xu Taotao realized the bizarre nature of the situation; moments ago, Biyun hadn’t even uttered a shriek, whereas a normal person would boundly cry out in pain.
She noticed the interior of the room was particularly dark, and the outside was exceedingly quiet as well.
“Did something happen?” Xu Taotao felt somewhat uneasy.
“We’ll know once we take a look outside.”
Saying this, Bai Cha walked to the window first.
Peering through the crack in the door, Bai Cha looked outside.
Red snow had begun drifting down outside at some unknown moment, the entire world exuding a ominous aura.
And right at this moment, a knock sounded on the door.
Biyun’s voice floated in from outside.
“Miss, are you awake?”
Xu Taotao looked toward the doorway in utter shock, then instinctively looked back at Biyun on the floor.
However, Biyun on the floor had vanished.
Nothing remained there.
Yet the shattered porcelain pillow and the stool knocked over on the floor proved that everything moments ago couldn’t possibly be an illusion.
Xu Taotao felt a chill run down her spine.
Bai Cha walked over, hiding behind the door, signaling Xu Taotao to speak.
Xu Taotao forced herself to calm down quickly.
“Is something the matter?”
“It’s like this, Miss. Something happened outside—there’s an anomaly. Madam was worried about you, so she had me come call you, wanting you to stay at her place temporarily today.”
Biyun’s voice betrayed nothing out of the ordinary.
Casting a glance at Bai Cha, Xu Taotao said, “What happened outside?”
“Something happened over at Biyi Tower. Miss, as you know, Biyi Tower represents the safety of the entire city. Miss, hurry and come out—or should I come in to serve you?”
Xu Taotao naturally didn’t want her to come in, nor did she want to step out.
After all, one Biyun had just died and another Biyun popped up—who knew whether the Biyun outside was a human or a ghost?
“No need. I should be fine inside my room. Tell Mother that so long as she takes good care of Father, that is fine. I will take good care of myself.”
The Biyun outside fell silent, as if acquiescing.
However, a blood-red light surfaced outside at some unknown moment.
A figure was projected onto the door—that was Biyun’s silhouette.
“Miss, you’re constantly unwilling to come out—is something wrong? You haven’t encountered any danger, have you?”
Biyun’s voice began to turn eerie as well, its pitch drawn long as if slowed down, making the tone of every word sound exceptionally strange.
She extended a hand onto the door.
“Then I am coming in, Miss. I must confirm whether you are safe.”
Xu Taotao’s heart rose all the way to her throat.
Bai Cha had already casually pressed against the door.
Biyun gave it a push, failing to budge it.
And then, Xu Taotao witnessed the shadow Biyun originally projected on the door—a pitch-black shadow—surface a smile.
Much like grinning from ear to ear, it revealed a smile, a red light glinting through the smile, looking as though a piece of paper had been cut out with a smiley face intentionally hollowed out in the middle.
Yet how could a person’s shadow possibly look like that?
“Miss, so you are right by the door?”
The shadow’s mouth opened and closed.
