Chapter Sixteen: Seeing Ghosts

“Riiing...” At that moment, an eerie ringing suddenly echoed through the basement, startling Lin Ran out of his reverie. It took him quite some time to regain his composure and realize it was his phone. Stifling the lingering shock in his heart, Lin Ran slowly took out his phone. The caller ID read “Abei.”

“Hello, Abei! What’s wrong?” Lin Ran answered, but there was only silence on the other end.

“Hello? Abei? Say something!” Lin Ran frowned and glanced at his phone. The signal was strong—why couldn’t he hear anything?

A strange chill crept over Lin Ran for reasons he couldn’t explain, a sensation all too familiar.

“Why isn’t he answering?” Fan Beixiao and Guo Ting were trying to call Lin Ran from their side. Guo Ting looked anxiously at Fan Beixiao, as the screen still showed “busy.”

“Forget it! Let’s just head to the villa!” After several failed attempts, Fan Beixiao hung up and turned to Guo Ting.

“Alright!” Guo Ting nodded hurriedly.

Fan Beixiao hailed a cab off the street, and the two of them rushed toward the villa. Fan Beixiao glanced at Guo Ting and saw her face had gone deathly pale, her knuckles white from clutching her hands so tightly. Seeing this, Fan Beixiao could only sigh; he, too, was worried sick about Lin Ran.

“Heh heh...” Lin Ran stared at his phone in confusion. The signal was fine—why the silence? Just as suspicion welled in his heart, a chilling, unnatural laughter rang out.

Lin Ran’s face changed dramatically as he heard the bizarre laughter, and cold sweat burst out over his forehead. Slowly turning his head, he saw a pair of feet dripping with fresh blood appear right in front of him.

Drip. Drip. Crimson drops fell from those feet, pooling on the ground, the air thick with the putrid stench of death and blood.

Lin Ran’s heart pounded as he slowly raised his eyes. Hanging in the center of the basement was a woman in a white nightdress, her body suspended from a rope. Most of her nightdress was soaked in blood.

“Ah!” Lin Ran collapsed onto the floor in terror, sweat beading down his face like pearls. Even though he’d seen many corpses, this sight unnerved him to his very core.

Never had Lin Ran seen such a horrifying female corpse. The woman’s face was swollen and bruised from the strangling rope, her eyes bulging grotesquely, fixed on Lin Ran below. Her pupils, once white, now shone with an uncanny red hue.

Forcing himself to overcome his terror and nausea, Lin Ran tried to stand and flee, but his legs felt as heavy as lead—he simply couldn’t move.

Summoning all his strength, Lin Ran managed to get to his feet, only for an even stronger stench of blood and rot to wash over him. A rope dangled slowly in front of his face. Turning, Lin Ran saw the corpse’s body twist slightly, those eerie red eyes still locked on him.

“Heh heh, so stubborn—do you still think you belong here?” Lin Ran realized he was doomed; the ghostly woman had no intention of letting him go. He stopped struggling, knowing full well that resistance was futile.

As if hearing his words, the corners of the corpse’s mouth twisted into a mocking smile, as if ridiculing Lin Ran’s meddling.

Taking advantage of the moment, Lin Ran suddenly sprang toward the stairs, using every ounce of strength as if fueled by a final burst of life.

The corpse’s gaze never left him, that twisted smile growing more pronounced.

Lin Ran had barely taken a few steps when something tightened viciously around his neck, a wave of suffocating pressure overwhelming him. A bitter smile crept across his lips—she truly had no intention of letting him escape.

As the corpse loomed closer, a profound sense of helplessness washed over Lin Ran—the utter powerlessness in the face of death. Never had he imagined he would come so close to dying.

“Lin Ran has always been sickly since childhood, always attracting unclean things. In a crisis, the jade will protect its master!” Suddenly, the words of his “Third Aunt” exploded in his mind like a bolt from the blue, echoing again and again.

Lin Ran suddenly remembered the piece of jade he always wore. Like a drowning man grasping at a lifeline, his trembling hand reached into his collar and tore the jade pendant from his neck. Without hesitation, he hurled the black jade at the corpse with all his strength.

The moment the corpse saw the jade, it shrieked in terror and vanished into thin air, the rope around Lin Ran’s neck disappearing with her. The black jade, missing its mark, crashed to the floor and broke in two.

Lin Ran collapsed onto the ground, his vision blurring as he gazed at the shattered jade in the distance, and lost consciousness. He never expected that jade would truly save his life.

Shortly after Lin Ran fainted, Guo Ting and Fan Beixiao arrived. Seeing that Lin Ran had only passed out, both let out a sigh of relief in unison.